Deans' stroke musings: Ask Legislators to Make Stroke a Priority Today

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Ask Legislators to Make Stroke a Priority Today - NSA email

This is the wrong approach. It is thinking too damned small. The much better approach would be to get a National Stroke Plan out there. That would allow for creating a strategy to address all the problems in stroke rather than this scattershot approach. If we don't know what the hell problem we are trying to solve we will never get there. The Stroke Plan could easily be modeled after the National Alzheimers Plan. Repealing therapy caps will not solve the problem that only 10% get to full recovery. To help the most patients you are going to have to stop the neuronal cascade of death. It is appalling that the NSA doesn't even have any strategy to help stroke survivors. You can contact the president of the NSA (Matt Lopez) directly via mlopez@stroke.org and ask when a National Stroke Plan will be delivered to Congress for voting.

Dear Friend,

The 114^th Congress gaveled into session on January 6, 2015. The first few weeks of Congress are spent organizing the committees and setting the legislative agenda for the following months. During this early planning period, it is vital that we remind Congress of the challenges stroke survivors face and the legislative remedies that address these challenges.
In the short term, the Medicare therapy caps will be an important priority for the stroke community. There is a process that allows patients to receive outpatient services beyond the caps, but it is set to expire on March 31, 2015. Now is the time for Congress to repeal the therapy caps and allow stroke survivors to receive the medically required amount of outpatient therapy they need.
In the long term, several bills will be introduced soon to provide relief to stroke survivors and their loved ones. The coming legislation will create a tax credit for caregiving expenses, promote return to work practices, and increase access to stroke treatment centers through telemedicine. Please ask you members to co-sponsor the legislation as the bills are introduced in both chambers.
We’ve provided everything you’ll need to contact your members of Congress, including a draft letter for you to personalize. Reaching out to your legislators will take only a moment and will ensure the stroke community’s priorities are at the top of the 114^th Congress’ agenda.
Sincerely,
Signature of Angie Baker