A dad of two was left unable to walk or talk when no doctor was available to give him life-changing treatment after a stroke.
Jane Coutts, 44, came downstairs one morning to find her fiancé, Paul Smith, "slouched against the kitchen wall" of their home in Clubmoor, Liverpool. She stepped over him, thinking he was playing with their three-year-old son on the floor after setting up an Easter egg hunt, until she saw his left arm reaching towards her and his head "going side to side as if to say no, but nothing was coming out" of his mouth.
A "miracle treatment" called thrombectomy, which can be performed up to 24 hours, and is most effective within the first six hours, after a stroke, reduces the risk of disability by removing blood clots from blocked arteries, restoring the flow of oxygen to the brain. Because Paul fell ill on the Easter Sunday bank holiday, no doctor was available to give him the treatment at The Walton Centre. Instead he was treated with the slower-acting thrombolysis, an injection of medicine to dissolve the blood clot.
