LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Every second counts when you're having a stroke. Instead of waiting for patients to reach the hospital, two new mobile stroke units unveiled in L.A. county can deliver life-saving care right in the field.
The expansion of the UCLA Arline and Henry Gluck Stroke Rescue Program was made possible thanks to a $6 million grant from the Brett Torino Foundation.
In 2020, Stephanie Wimberly had just finished getting a root canal, when she started feeling weird symptoms.
"I felt some weakness on my right side along with an extreme headache," she said.
Wimberly wanted to go home, but the staff knew to call 911. And what pulled up was not your ordinary ambulance - it was a mobile stroke unit (MSU).
Dr. May Nour, medical director of the UCLA Mobile Stroke Unit Program, was in that MSU that day and assessed Wimberly right in the field with a highly sophisticated CT scanner.
"We have to determine whether it's a bleeding-type stroke or a lack of blood flow-type stroke," she said.
Within minutes, Nour knew she had to administer the clot-busting drug TPA.
"I had a clot at the top left side of my brain. That could only have been seen in one of these units," Wimberly said.
She told her story as UCLA unveiled the two new mobile stroke units treating patients in the South Bay, Gateway Cities, the Westside and the San Fernando Valley.
The program started in 2017. Two new units means more stroke patients can have improved outcomes.
"Out of a 100 patients treated on these ambulances earlier rather than later in the emergency department, 27 will be less disabled, including 11 who will be completely disability free," Nour said.
The services are provided free to patients, but at a very high cost.
"What is really needed is Medicare reform and legislative reform. Until t hen, we've had to rely on special project funds and philanthropy," Nour said.
"I put my dollars into things that matter, that are tangible. These stroke units are saving lives the day they go on the street. It doesn't get any better than that," said Brett Torino with the Brett Torino Foundation.
"Our goal is simple - to save lives and preserve the quality of life, " said L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn.
All Wimberly knows is that a mobile stroke unit like this allowed her to live and live fully. She's now a new mother.
"On that day my life was saved by the mobile stroke unit. And I owe them everything," she said.