January 31, 2025
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Riverside debuts higher-level care for stroke patients

By Jeff Bonty
Riverside Healthcare’s brand-new Neurological Biplane Imaging Suite, featuring technology from Siemens Healthineers, offers a wide range of minimally invasive procedures in a single interventional suite. With a $3 million investment, Riverside is the only area hospital with these imaging and neurological capabilities.

Riverside Healthcare’s brand-new Neurological Biplane Imaging Suite, featuring technology from Siemens Healthineers, offers a wide range of minimally invasive procedures in a single interventional suite. With a $3 million investment, Riverside is the only area hospital with these imaging and neurological capabilities. (Courtesy of Riverside Healthcare)

KANKAKEE — Time matters when healthcare professionals are dealing with serious health events.

A stroke certainly qualifies as a serious episode.

Dealing with a person who has suffered a stroke, seconds can be the difference between survival or permanent health consequences.

In the past, people in the greater Kankakee County area would be transferred to a hospital in Chicago to receive an advanced level of care.

Come Monday, that will change.

Riverside Medical Center begins use of a neurointerventional biplane angiography system, which cost $3 million, according to Riverside officials.

REAL TIME 3D IMAGE

It is a medical imaging device which utilizes two X-ray sources and detectors to simultaneously capture high-resolution, three-dimensional images of blood vessels in the brain and spinal cord.

“If I was laying on the table and my head was in the cradle there, they can look [at my head] from the top down and side to side, all at the same time. So you get a real time 3D image,” said Krystal Hiser, director of perioperative and interventional services.

Perioperative means the time around a surgical procedure, including the time before, during and after the operation.

Riverside is a certified primary stroke center by DNV Healthcare, offering treatments for ischemic (blood clot or particles blocking blood vessels) and hemorrhagic (an artery in the brain leaks blood), Hiser said.

DNV Healthcare is an approved hospital accreditation organization through the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid.

“So the types of patients that we’ll be treating specifically in this room is ischemic stroke, and then we’ll be also doing diagnostic and interventional procedures as more of a preventative care for stroke,” Hiser said.

“We can bring the patient in, we can image the structures of the brain and the blood vessels, and then we can do interventions after that.”

An ischemic stroke is where blood flow and oxygen has been reduced to a part of the body.

Leading the team is neurosurgeon Dr. Jehad Zakaria.

For the past year, Zakaria was at Loyola University Medical Center as part of a fellowship, learning how to operate with the new equipment.

During an open house of the neurological biplane imaging suite earlier this week, Zakaria discussed how these capabilities will facilitate faster evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of stroke and other neurovascular conditions.

In the case of stroke, time lost equals brain lost, so having this capability at Riverside can lead to fewer delays, better health outcomes, and the chance for people to receive treatment close to home, instead of having to be sent up to the city for treatment, Zakaria said.

Riverside President and CEO Phil Kambic said from start to finish it took three years to get to fruition.

It started with doctors dedicated to treating patients with cutting edge technology. From there it was discussed with Kambic, who took it to the board of directors. The talks turned to financing and construction, which took a year, he said.

COMMITMENT TO COMMUNITY

Kambic marveled over the newest addition to Riverside’s many healthcare offerings.

“It’s interesting, because I’ll ask people, ‘When you see this, what do you see? An expensive piece, right?’ But, here’s what I see,” Kambic said. “I see Riverside’s commitment to our community. I see our commitment to our patients. I see our commitment to caring for the community, right? That’s our mission. That’s what we should be here for.

“I see Dr. Zakaria and his commitment to his patients. He’s the driver behind this. He’s, when you meet him, he is a passionate guy, but he is extremely skilled at his craft.

“When I see this, I think of Krystal. I think of teamwork. This didn’t happen by itself. We have a whole bunch of people that have had to go to special training, not only Dr. Zakaria,” Kambic continued.

“He gets the praise because he’s the operator. He went to training for a year. Krystal’s staff and the team that are going to be working on here, they’ve done a lot of training and prep work and research to be able to be in here to help care for that patient.

“So when I see this, I see things like commitment. I see things like teamwork. I see saving lives in Kankakee County.”