SANFORD, Fla. — A Lieutenant for the Sanford Fire Department never thought he would be the one who needed saving. But a stroke brought him to HCA Florida Lake Monroe Hospital.
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What started as a typical evening for 57-year-old Fire Lieutenant Greg McGann, ended with him blacked out on the floor of the Sanford Fire Department.
“I can’t see anyone to the right of me,” McGann said. “I can hear my slurred speech. I had no movement on my left side.”
McGann and his crew have responded to numerous medical calls as firefighters and paramedics, so they quickly recognized he was having a stroke.
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“We see it daily,” McGann said. “We recognize it a lot. When it does happen to you, it’s scary.”
Dr. Ajeet Sodhi is a Neurologist at HCA Florida Lake Monroe Hospital who specializes in the treatment of strokes.
Dr. Sodhi used a biplane fluoroscope, which shows real-time X-rays inside a patient’s body, to remove the clot through the artery.
“In one pass I was able to completely remove the blood clot and restore blood flow to the brain,” Dr. Sodhi said.
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HCA Florida Lake Monroe was recently recognized as a Nationally Certified Comprehensive Stroke Center.
This means the hospital has the tools to save stroke-stricken patients quickly.
“Until this hospital gained that designation, any of those patients had to go an hour north or south,” Dr. Sodhi said. “You can imagine having to go an hour away delays their care and it delays the amount of brain that is saved.”
Within a month, McGann was back on the job.
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He told Channel 9 he is thankful to the doctors and his fire crew for saving one of their own.
“From our side of it, we never think of ourselves,” McGann said. “We think we’re invincible. We’re not. We’re all the same.”
Doctors say that to recognize the symptoms of a stroke, one must remember the acronym BE FAST. B for balance, E for eyes, F for facial dropping, A for arm weakness, S for slurred speech, and T for it’s time to call 911.
More resources for stroke care at HCA Florida Lake Monroe Hospital can be found here.
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