Fast Finder:
Critical Difference Stories:
Neurosciences/Stroke Care
Man of Mystery: The Chris Bounds Story
Questions
Chris arrived home and went straight to his piano. There
were a few questions he needed to answer. Could he remember the music? Could
the notes in his mind find their way to his fingers? Could he still play? While the surreal
voyage of the past few days was over, what scars were left? After thirty years
of marriage, raising four children, creating and selling businesses, this well-traveled
entrepreneur had just survived the greatest unforeseen obstacle of his life– and
it was no larger than a grain of sand. But how much of Chris was left?
Chris and Carol Bounds’ children range in age from eighteen to twenty-four; the youngest of whom is headed to UCLA in the fall. Then the nest will be empty. Chris, now fifty-three, was a scholarship track athlete at Rice University who flirted with a four-minute mile during his prime years. Still extremely fit, Chris is an active bicyclist (on and off road), an experienced marathon runner, and runs several times each week. By any measure, Chris does not fit the profile of a man headed toward a health crisis.
It was a Saturday morning during spring break and Chris was home alone. He started his day with a quick four-mile run, and then retreated to his woodshop for some hobby-time on a woodworking project. About thirty minutes had passed when a feeling of nausea and dizziness suddenly hit him. Chris made it to the lawn before he lost his balance and dropped to the grass. He was conscious, but weak and dizzy with a pain in his neck. He laid there for ten minutes before stable enough to struggle to his feet and plod his way into the house. He was still a bit uneasy, but the symptoms slowly faded away. What had happened?
Ebb and Flow
Later that evening another wave of dizziness hit him. This time
he sought medical attention. Carol drove Chris to the Saint Alphonsus Emergency
Department at Eagle Health Plaza in Eagle. Their two sons went along and helped
Chris inside, where he was taken to an exam room immediately.
As the ED nurses hooked Chris to monitors and checked his vital signs, ED physician Jeffrey Dingman, MD, joined them. Chris was given medication for his nausea and further examination was performed. During neurologic examination Chris was found to have some subtle abnormalities, which seemed to come and go. Dr. Dingman became suspicious that this was more than just an inner ear problem - stroke and cardiac problems were explored. An EKG, chest x-ray, blood tests and a CT scan of his head were all performed, but all results were normal.
The medication had partially resolved the nausea and vertigo but Chris had developed slurred speech, which appeared and then faded. It was well past midnight and Chris told the medical staff he wanted to go home. Dr. Dingman had been consulting via telephone with neurologist Karin M. Lindholm, DO, with Saint Alphonsus in Boise. With inconclusive test results and without a clear diagnosis, the doctors were uncomfortable releasing Chris. But when he tried to stand he simply couldn’t. Clearly there was still a problem – but what?
Beat the Clock
Doctors Dingman and Lindholm were in agreement; they
wanted an MRI scan of Chris’s brain before he they made the decision to release him. At
3:30 a.m. the MRI was performed. About that same time, Chris’s slurred
speech returned and he was now having difficulty moving his left arm and left
leg. The MRI images revealed a small area of tissue which appeared to be damaged
- possibly from a lack of oxygen.
While not conclusive, the image raised significant concern. And Instead of going home, Chris was transferred to the Primary Stroke Center at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise.
Upon arrival at Saint Alphonsus, CT angiography imaging was performed in an attempt to locate the source of the tissue damage. Now the picture became clear. The CT angiography revealed evidence of a basilar artery thrombosis – a blood clot in an artery that provides blood to the brain. Even though his symptoms were atypical and inconsistent, Chris was having a serious stroke. “That possibility never crossed my mind,” Chris admitted.
With the clot diagnosed, treatment became the new challenge. When left untreated this type of stroke is fatal 90% of the time. Successful treatment is only possible if performed within a small window of time, and time was not on Chris’s side. Because of the atypical, intermittent symptoms, and due to the level of difficulty in locating a clot such as this, precious time had passed.
It was 7:30 a.m. when Dr. Lindholm came into Chris’s hospital room where he lay sleeping. On a cot next to his bed Carol was also getting some much needed rest. With a heightened sense of urgency, Dr. Lindholm woke the couple. By now Chris had lost total movement of his left side limbs, his face was noticeably drooping and his speech was severely slurred. The clot was taking its toll.
A Delicate Matter
The neurologist quickly explained the situation. There weren’t
a lot of options. Removing the clot was Chris’s best chance at survival,
but there were risks. Then Dr. Lindholm told the couple that clot retrieval
would be her choice if she were the patient – and the decision needs
to be made immediately.
“I was concerned about that procedure, but I had confidence in Dr. Lindholm,” Carol recalled. “I didn’t think Chris was able to understand or to speak, so I knew I had to make the decision.”
But to Carol’s surprise and relief, Chris managed to slur out, “Let’s do it,” and the decision was made.
Carol stepped outside the room to tell her waiting boys what was about to happen. “When I came back into the room I looked at the expression on Chris’s face and I cried,” Carol said. “I think we were both frightened.”
Chris was immediately rushed to the radiology area where the clot retrieval would be performed. The procedure was projected to take one to two hours.
Interventional neuroradiologist Anthony Giauque, M.D., would attempt the delicate procedure. He met Carol in the waiting room and reviewed the risks with her again – she reaffirmed the decision to proceed. “They were all in a ‘big-time’ hurry,” said Carol. “…but I never felt like Dr. Giauque didn’t have time for me. He was wonderful.”
The Winning Team
Dr. Giauque fed a thin wire up through Chris’s
groin, following the arterial path up to where the clot was found, near the
brain stem. A cork-screw like attachment on the end of the wire grabbed the
tiny obstruction and the wire was removed, along with the entire clot. Blood
was again flowing to the dying brain tissue.
The medical team erupted in cheers and even a couple of high-fives. Chris was awake during the process and recalls the instant relief once the clot was removed. The paralysis in his limbs was suddenly gone. Everyone in the room was elated at the near-miraculous results.
Several friends and family members had joined Carol in the waiting area during the procedure. It had only been forty-five minutes when Dr. Giauque emerged from the room. “At first I thought something must have gone terribly wrong,” Carol said. “It was too soon. But there was something reassuring in his face that said this was a good thing.”
Then Chris was wheeled through the doors and toward ICU. Reacting to the scene, Carol and her friends clustered around the rolling bed to get a peek at Chris. “I was so thrilled that Chris was alive,” Carol said, “…that I didn’t make the connection that his hand was waving and he was speaking clearly.” It was a friend who quickly pointed out the remarkable recovery.
Over Achievers
After a day in ICU it was clear that all the stroke
symptoms were gone and Chris was ready to be moved to a patient room. The staff
was taken back, but was accommodating when Chris said he would walk from ICU
to his room – and
so he did. “Miraculous was a word I kept hearing,” Carol said.
One day later Chris was headed home.
“The entire event was surreal,” Chris said. “I feel extremely fortunate those people were there, and blessed that I had a full recovery. It’s like it never happened.” Two weeks after beating his stroke, Chris participated in a three-mile fund-raising run at BSU, where he “Beat Coach Pete” and outran hundreds of others.
“I have a little fear that it could happen again,” Chris admits, “But I take comfort in the fact that there’s a stroke center at Saint Alphonsus, and that there are people like Dr. Karin Lindholm and Dr. Giauque.”
Now at home, Chris sat at his piano and his fingers began making quick, intricate moves. As notes from the Beethoven sonata began to fill the room, Chris heard the answer to his questions of recovery. He was back.
