The Coral Gables Fire Department is joining all Miami-Dade County fire rescue departments and 16 partner hospitals to create a Stroke Consortium that will help save lives for those patients who are experiencing a stroke.
The network was created through a cooperative effort of the Fire Officers Association of Miami- Dade, which includes the fire departments from Coral Gables, Hialeah, Homestead, Key Biscayne, Miami, Miami Beach, and Miami-Dade County.
The goal is to improve dramatically a patient’s chance of recovery after a stroke. According to the Center for Disease Control, someone suffers a stroke every 45 seconds of the day. It is the fourth leading cause of death and the primary cause of adult disability in the United States.
This translates into more than 780,000 strokes annually in the United States, with someone dying every 3.3 minutes and costing more than $53.9 billion each year for the treatment of stroke victims.
A stroke occurs when a blood vessel that carries oxygen and nutrients to the brain is either blocked by a clot or bursts. When that happens, part of the brain cannot get the blood and oxygen it needs, so it starts to die. For every minute that acute stroke care is delayed, two million more brain cells die.
In Miami-Dade County, there are approximately between 4,000 to 6,000 stroke alerts every year.