LOUISVILLE, Ky. — When Scott Konermann isn't coaching his kids on the baseball diamond or the basketball court, he's coaching himself, through tedious rounds of physical therapy.
Konermann was 44 years old when he had a stroke in Nov. 2019, while out of town for his daughter's softball tournament in Birmingham, Alabama.
"I got out of the shower and I couldn't move. I just laid down and couldn't get back up," Konermann said.
He's one of about 795,000 people who had a stroke last year. That's one person every 40 seconds and one death every four minutes in America.
Doctors say it's crucial to reverse the damage before that happens and time is everything.
"The moment there's a blockage in a vessel to the brain, the function stops," Dr. Tom Yao, a neurosurgeon with Norton Neuroscience Institute (NNI) said.
Treatment is dependent on what doctors can see and back when Dr. Yao first started in this field about 18 years ago, the prognosis was far from good.
"People would come in the hospital with stroke and there was nothing people could do," Dr. Yao said.
Today, doctors can diagnose and treat strokes faster than ever before. New to Norton Brownsboro Hospital in the last two months are two digital x-ray machines, called Biplane Angiography.
It's known as the best technology in the world for treating strokes, developing 3D imaging inside the brain, giving doctors a look at every blood vessel, from all angles. They can test out virtual "devices," like stents, before they're ever used on the patient.
"The more you see, the more you know, the safer it is to perform these things," Dr. Yao said.
The equipment just received FDA approval and fewer than a dozen hospitals in the country have it. Norton is the only one equipped with two, each with its own new hybrid operating rooms.
Konermann was lucky.
"Absolutely, no doubt about it," he said.
He now spends mornings in rehab at the Norton Neuroscience Institute.
"When I first came in here, I started on a walker," Konermann said.
He says he's gained a good 90 percent of his mobility back and hopes to hit it out of the park by the end of the year.
"Just trying to get back to normal, the things I did before. I get closer and closer every day," he said.
Contact reporter Brooke Hasch at bhasch@whas11.com. Follow her on Twitter (@WHAS11Hasch) and Facebook.
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