– Almost everything in life changed. I can’t work and I don’t exercise as usual. I have to take into account both light and sound in the activities I participate in, says Hilde Magelssen. It is bright in the living room and the curtains are drawn in Hilde Magelssen’s new house in Rælingen when news comes to visit. It is not always like that. On the outside, she looks completely normal, but she is well aware that her energy and strength are much less than before. Photo: Amund Rotbakken-Gundersen / news – I often draw the curtains when I’m at home so that it gets darker. Light and sound make me exhausted and tired, says Magelssen. Magelssen was previously a handball coach, full-time and full of energy. In 2015, she suffered a stroke that turned her life upside down. With that, she became part of a grim statistic. Every year, 12,000 Norwegians suffer a stroke. Eight years later, Hilde’s form is still so bad that she cannot work. Perhaps a newly developed app from OUS and Norwegian Air Ambulance could have prevented her from getting as sick. – I woke up one morning and was extremely dizzy. I barely managed to get to the bathroom when my legs gave out from under me. I threw up and lay down, says Magelssen. The new app makes communication between the ambulance and the doctor much easier. Photo: Norwegian Air Ambulance She barely managed to crawl in to the man who was still sleeping. He called the ambulance. When the ambulance arrived at the hospital, the form had improved. An MRI was taken, but this showed no signs of a stroke. The doctors could not explain why she had become acutely ill. A phone call changed everything Four days later the phone rang. – They had looked at the pictures again, and it turned out that I had had a small stroke in the cerebellum. The days can often be long for Hilde Magelssen. She often spends her days in the forest where she lives. Photo: TRYGVE HEIDE / news When Magelssen had a stroke, she did not have the traditional “Talk, smile, lift” symptoms of a stroke in the cerebrum, but symptoms of a stroke in the cerebellum. Whether Magelssen’s form today would have been better if the blow had been discovered earlier, it is not possible to say. But the sooner a stroke is detected and treated, the greater the chances of recovery. Although Magelssen’s stroke was relatively minor, the consequences were great. – A small stroke is more than big enough for me, she says. That is why Magelssen is concerned that new and better methods should be found to catch strokes – even the smaller ones – as early as possible. That tool may now have arrived. An app that can help paramedics are often the first to arrive if you call 113. Rune Tøftmoen is a paramedic and has extensive experience as paramedics. For him, it is important to be able to make correct and quick decisions in demanding situations. He says that he previously asked patients to smile, speak and lift, if he suspected a stroke. Now he has gained more expertise and a new tool that enables him to test far more symptoms in the ambulance. When Rune Tøftmoen receives patients with stroke symptoms, he can send the information directly to the neurologist through the app. Photo: Trygve Heide / news Using an app on the phone, he sees what is to be examined. – Then we choose the illustrations that best suit the patient’s symptoms, go ahead and print our way through all eleven examinations in the app. The information is sent straight to the on-call telephone of the neurologist at the hospital. He believes it has made everyday life easier, and the patients safer. – Before, it was very difficult to talk to specialists because we were at completely different levels and had different skills and different languages. Now we have the same expertise and research methodology, and then we talk much more alike. Then the dialogue goes much faster, says Tøftmoen. – With the app, paramedics and neurologists talk more alike, says Rune Tøftmoen. Photo: Trygve Heide / news He took part in a study where 267 ambulance workers were trained in the same method that the doctors use in the hospital using the new mobile app. The study, which is a collaboration between the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation and Oslo University Hospital, OUS, shows that it is yielding results. Doctor and senior researcher Maren Ranhoff Hov is project manager for the study. Now the method is to be introduced in the health service in Norway. Photo: Trygve Heide / news In the study, several patients with small strokes were caught, and time was saved in the hospital. – We are able to find more patients with the small strokes by increasing our expertise and using this tool, says Maren Ranhoff Hov who is a doctor and senior researcher at OUS and at the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation. Hilde Magelssen hopes others can get faster treatment with the new app. Hope others get help sooner Several years have passed since Hilde Magelssen’s life changed drastically. Today, she has a small position as an experience consultant at a rehabilitation institution. Her stroke was not detected quickly. Now she hopes that the app will catch more people. – I am concerned that others should have a better course and faster treatment so that they can have a less demanding new everyday life than I have had, concludes Magelssen. Magelssen is also concerned with the treatment of stroke-affected sheep in the aftermath of the stroke. She therefore believes that experienced consultants should be used to an even greater extent.
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Life was turned upside down after the battle – hope a new app can help others – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
