A consultant who pioneered a treatment that brings paralysed stroke patients “back to life” recently discovered that it could benefit one in five victims, rather than the one in 17, as had previously been thought.

Sanjeev Nayak, a consultant neuroradiologist at University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, started using the treatment on NHS patients in 2009.

It involves a small piece of wire mesh being inserted into a blood vessel, usually near the groin.

The mesh travels through an artery to the brain, where it is used to pull out blood clots too severe to be removed by drugs.

Extraordinary figures

When Dr Nayak started using the treatment, which he came across in Austria in 2009, experts called it extraordinary.

It was hoped that up to 9,000 of the 152,000 people who have a stroke every year could be helped by it.

In December, however, new tests showed that it could be used up to 24 hours after a stroke, rather than six. Suddenly, more than 30,000 people were eligible.

Funding treatment

Although the treatment has been funded across the UK and is available in 24 locations, fewer than 1,000 patients are set to receive it this year.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done,” says Dr Nayak. “We have the funding for the treatment, but we need more for the rapid transfer of patients and to raise awareness of it across the NHS.”

Despite this, Dr Nayak has overseen some remarkable recoveries.

A 27-year-old woman who had a stroke when she was pregnant was given the treatment last year.

She recovered with no long-lasting symptoms and had a healthy baby, which would have been impossible had her only option to remove the blood clot in her brain been drugs.

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