In her 26 years as a receptionist in the Imaging Department, Rita Salamanca had never seen a patient who couldn’t remember his name or telephone number, let alone speak.

“When he came up to the desk to check in, I said, ‘Good morning, sir,’” recalled the Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center employee. “But when I asked him for his name and Kaiser Permanente member number, all he could do was pad his pockets as if he was looking for something. I said, ‘That’s OK. Can you give me your phone number?’ He pulled out his phone and opened it up, but he couldn’t figure out how to use it. I thought, why doesn’t he know?”

Then a second thought occurred to her — this person needs help.

Thinking creatively

“I kept him calm,” said Salamanca.  “And I called a nurse who came with a wheelchair to assess him.”

The nurse, correctly identifying a stroke in progress, wheeled the man out the door and around the corner to the emergency room.

But the drama didn’t end there. Emergency room staff and physicians needed to know his name, so they could access his medical history. Without it, his treatment could have been delayed.

That’s when Samari Rivera, also an Imaging Department employee, jumped into action.

Rivera scanned all the patients scheduled for appointments around that time of day and looked at their profile pictures. A probable match appeared.

However, the staff needed an absolute match. “We can’t take any chances.” said the emergency room nurse.

“You have to think out of the box,” said Rivera. “And to me, it was also pretty simple. He had his phone with him, so I told the nurse, why don’t you dial this number, and if his phone rings, it’s him.’”

“If I ever have a stroke, I want to be in front of these guys,” Jim Keiser, area director for Imaging Services.

Sure enough, the man’s phone rang, and emergency room staff immediately began treatment. (Kaiser Permanente is not identifying the man in order to preserve his privacy.)

“I’m impressed they recognized this person needed help and they got help, but the part that makes this story unique was that they worked so hard in identifying this patient,” said Jim Keiser, area director for Imaging Services for Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara. “It significantly helped speed up his care. How they approached it was so smart. If I ever have a stroke, I want to be in front of these guys.”

Santa Clara Medical Center Stroke Coordinator Kirsten De La Madrid, RN, also commended Salamanca and Rivera for their quick thinking. 

“I’m really happy they noticed the signs and symptoms,” said De La Madrid.  “For every minute a stroke is untreated, we lose 1.9 million neurons and seven and a half miles of brain nerve fibers. For each hour of stroke, our brain ages 3.6 years.”

The signs of a stroke are embodied in the acronym BE FAST.

Salamanca and Rivera thought of their own parents or family when reflecting on the situation.

“What would you do if it were your dad or mom?” asked Rivera. “Our job is to take care of people, even if we’re not doing hands-on care. I just had to help this patient. And we had all the resources at our fingertips.”

Same for Salamanca.

“I couldn’t just let this patient walk away,” she said. “Someday we or one of our loved ones might be in his position. You have to help. You have to.”