First-of-its-kind procedure in London, Ont. aims to prevent permanent stroke damage

WIlene Leyen of Clifford, Ont. didn’t know that when she suffered a stroke on June 24, 2022 she would be part of a first-of-its-kind procedure.

“I fell on the floor. I sat on the couch and then slid on down to the floor,” Leyen says when she realized she was having a stroke. She laid there for 4 hours until she was able to reach her son.

Leyen was rushed to University Hospital in London and became the first candidate for a new procedure to treat stroke patients.

“Performing more than 200 emergency stroke surgeries each year, our team at LHSC [London Health Sciences Centre] knows the importance of identifying strokes and acting quickly,” says Dr. Michael Mayich, an interventional neuroradiologist at LHSC.

“When a blood clot is causing a stroke, over two million brain cells can be lost each minute, so seconds count. By locating and removing the clot in a shorter period of time, the patient has a higher probability of regaining mobility and speech. This device offers the possibility of removing clots in fewer attempts, shortening the procedure and maximizing the chances of good outcomes for our patients,” he adds.

Mayich and his team used a new device called a balloon distal access catheter (BDAC) to successfully remove a blood clot from an artery in Leyen's brain.

The procedure was performed through a tiny incision over the right hip and took less than 10 minutes, reconstituting blood flow to a large part of the brain and restoring Leyen’s movement and speech almost immediately.

“Very, very, very fortunate. Right away, I could walk, I could talk. I am very grateful for them and very thankful and very blessed,” Leyen says.

The BDAC device was developed by Waterloo-based company Vena Medical.

“I’m really proud that you know this is a Canadian developed device being used by a Canadian physician and a Canadian hospital treating a Canadian patient,” says founder and CEO Michael Phillips.

Since its first implementation, five more patients have benefitted from the procedure and it is now available across the country, and approved by Health Canada.