Eye on Health: Beacon experts stress that ‘time is brain’ during Stroke Awareness Month

When it felt like he had slept on it wrong one morning, Dr. Thomas Fischbach initially dismissed the odd sensation in his hand and considered lying back down for a bit.

But as an interventional radiologist at Memorial Hospital, Dr. Fischbach realized that he might be having a stroke caused by a blood clot. So he called 911 instead.

Quick action by paramedics and Memorial’s stroke team in September not only spared Dr. Fischbach from brain damage, but he was also able to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a recent South Bend Cubs game.

“Time is brain,” says Dr. Jose Luis Lopez, medical director of the neurohospitalist and stroke programs at Beacon and a physician on Dr. Fischbach’s care team.

Read more about Dr. Fischbach’s incredible story in Eye on Health on WSBT-TV: