Quick Stroke Care

For Sam Mele, it led to a full recovery

Sam Mele of Hanover Township to come

An average Saturday afternoon in Sam Mele’s Hanover Township home turned out to be anything but typical. While sorting through the day’s mail, the 79-year-old began slurring his words and having trouble using his left arm. Suspecting a stroke, Sam’s wife, Ellie, dialed 9-1-1. Paramedics arrived in just five minutes. “By that time, I couldn’t sit up straight anymore,” Sam says.

The Meles told paramedics to take them to nearby Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg, a Joint Commission-certified Primary Stroke Center. There, emergency department physician Jennifer Zambo, D.O., neurologist Gary Clauser, M.D., resident Traci Anselmo, D.O., and other professionals worked swiftly to diagnose the exact location of Mele’s blocked blood vessel. “Even though everyone was moving quickly, they took the time to explain what they were doing,” Ellie says. “I felt reassured.”

The stroke team worked fast because the window of opportunity to begin treating a stroke with clot-busting drugs is three hours from the first symptom. Because of their experience, they located the blood clot in Mele’s brain and administered the clotbuster tPA in only 79 minutes, well under the 180-minute time limit.

The next day, Sam was able to walk with his nurses’ help. Four days later, he was sent home, with a walker “only for balance.” And just three months after his stoke, Sam was completely recovered. “My speech is normal, my face doesn’t droop, I move normally and can do everything I want to do,” he says. “That includes playing with my three grandchildren.”

The Meles are glad they chose Lehigh Valley Hospital. “The care I received from the staff was fantastic,” Sam says. “There is nothing they didn’t do for us. I can’t praise them enough.”

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