Help on way for regional stroke survivors
THE wife of a Goomburra truck driver who has struggled to access treatment since he had a severe stroke has welcomed a $11.9 million promise to link rural victims with medical specialists, but said more needed to be done.
Almost two years since Peter Gilmore’s heart flat-lined in Gold Coast University Hospital and he was “brought back to life” by doctors, access to healthcare has been a struggle for the former truckie.
Travelling to the Gold Coast and back every two weeks for treatment has been a huge financial drain on Helen Gilmore and her husband, who still suffers from daily seizures and memory loss.
They were both forced to stop work in the wake of his seizure in August 2017.
“When you have gone from earning a really good wage between two people, the financial burden is huge,” she said.
Announced on Tuesday, the $11.9 million federal Labor plan aims to link regional hospitals with city-based stroke specialists through a 24-hour medical tele-network.
It comes after figures revealed people in regions were 19 per cent more likely to have a stroke.
Stroke Foundation clinical council chair Professor Bruce Campbell said the network would transform emergency stroke treatment for people in the bush.
But Mrs Gilmore feared video link-ups could only do so much.
“It can be a great thing but it might be a case of they didn’t see enough or the person with them didn’t know enough and miss something,” she said.
Now her husband’s full-time carer, Mrs Gilmore said it could be easy to miss subtle signs of a seizure. She called for more stroke specialists to be based in regional areas for emergency response and ongoing treatment.