Neurological damage from stroke is #Solvable | Dr. Melanie Walker
Neurological damage from stroke is #Solvable | Dr. Melanie Walker
Neurological damage from stroke is #Solvable. Dr. Melanie Walker explains how advances in science and medicine can reverse previously permanent neurological damage from stroke and other injuries.
Dr. Melanie Walker is an endovascular neurosurgeon at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow. Previously, Dr. Walker was Director of the Delivery Unit and Senior Adviser to President Jim Yong Kim at the World Bank Group and also served as Deputy Director for Global Development at the Bill \u0026 Melinda Gates Foundation.
Learn more at www.rockefellerfoundation.org/solvable
Content
0.19 -> More than a billion people
1.774 -> suffer from disability
caused by neurologic disease,
4.819 -> whether it's a stroke, dementia,
7.322 -> accident, or some other problem.
9.282 -> That's more than one in
every six people on Earth.
12.535 -> But neurologic disability
is a solvable problem.
18.458 -> I'm Melanie Walker.
19.709 -> I'm an endovascular neurosurgeon
21.461 -> at the University of Washington.
30.595 -> Estimates are that
neurologic disability
33.014 -> costs us between $200 billion
35.6 -> and a trillion dollars a year, maybe more.
37.936 -> It destroys families, it
destroys personal life,
40.521 -> and it destroys opportunity,
42.232 -> and it's completely unnecessary.
44.442 -> Most people don't know that
if you present to a hospital,
47.07 -> within 24 hours of a stroke,
49.072 -> there's a very good chance
50.114 -> that we can reverse the
disability from that stroke.
53.117 -> We can perform a very simple surgery
55.119 -> called a mechanical thrombectomy
for stroke patients.
57.914 -> We insert a small catheter
in the arm or their leg,
60.875 -> and use arteries as
roadways to get to the brain
63.795 -> and remove the clot that's causing
65.838 -> the obstruction to blood flow.
67.84 -> By doing that, we can reverse the symptoms
70.134 -> that they're having.
71.052 -> It may be weakness, it
may be difficulty talking,
74.013 -> or it may be more severe.
75.765 -> We can do that today.
77.976 -> New science is emerging
and my colleagues and I
80.52 -> are hopeful that within
the next five years,
82.814 -> we can offer new treatments
84.274 -> to start reversing neurologic disability
86.484 -> for more people, in more places.
92.699 -> Almost every cell in the human body
94.826 -> has little batteries inside of it,
96.577 -> and those batteries are
called mitochondria.
99.622 -> Mitochondria aren't so different than
101.374 -> the batteries you find in your smartphone.
103.251 -> In fact, sometimes when your phone
104.627 -> is really low on charge,
it seems like it's broken.
107.463 -> It's not your phone that's broken,
108.798 -> it just needs a little boost.
110.3 -> Same thing goes for your cells.
112.218 -> Sometimes when we assume that
a tissue is dying or dead,
115.388 -> maybe what it needs is
a little bit of energy.
117.932 -> My colleagues and I believe
119.559 -> that we can take mitochondria
from healthy cells
122.103 -> and replace them in to sick cells,
124.022 -> in your heart, your brain, your kidneys,
127.025 -> and other organs that
may be lacking in energy.
130.278 -> Our hope is that by reimplanting batteries
132.447 -> in to tissues that don't have energy,
134.198 -> we can restore function.
135.7 -> We've seen many exciting
examples in the heart -
138.619 -> people who've had heart attacks,
140.246 -> when we reimplant healthy mitochondria
142.874 -> we see that the tissue regenerates
144.792 -> and gives the heart a new
145.918 -> chance to beat another bunch of years.
148.88 -> In the case of a stroke,
150.173 -> we would simply deliver mitochondria
152.3 -> beyond the place of the
clot into the tissue
154.594 -> that's starved of energy.
156.262 -> Our hope is that we can make it
157.847 -> part of the standard of care.
159.64 -> But one of the challenges that we face
162.018 -> is that the new technologies are moving
163.895 -> very, very quickly, and
we need more doctors
166.356 -> that are able to perform
procedures like this.
168.858 -> So we're working on that
and I'm hopeful that
170.943 -> in the next few years
we'll have more and more
173.154 -> capacity to start reversing
neurologic disability
176.074 -> in cities all around the world.
177.825 -> We're never gonna stop all disease.
179.619 -> We're never gonna be able
to prevent every accident,
181.996 -> but imagine a world where
you don't have to live
184.707 -> with neurological disability
as a result of those.
187.71 -> I believe it can happen.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4TnhgXhBC8