Jena Watson is no stranger to patients and caregivers on the fourth floor of University Hospital. She is known as a social butterfly – always working to brighten someone else’s day.

At first glance, a passerby might mistake Jena Watson as a visitor on her hospital floor. She is headed to the laundry facility to flip a load and then she’s off to work a puzzle before heading to physical therapy. In between stops, she visits with nurses and patients and pops her head around a corner to greet a housekeeping employee tidying a room. She knows them all by name.

Watson is no stranger to folks around the transplant unit.

A resident of Mississippi, Watson greets each hospital acquaintance with a smile and a distinct southern drawl that warms a room. She first came to IU Health in 2013, a candidate for an intestinal transplant.

“I asked my surgeon in Mississippi ‘if I were your mother, your sister or your wife, where would you go for a transplant? He said, ‘do you have relatives in Indiana?’ I told him, ‘I’m not looking for the cheapest gas. I want to go where they know what they’re doing,’” said Watson, a patient of Dr. Richard Mangus. She was transported more than 10 hours by ambulance, was stabilized and underwent multivisceral transplantation on a Tuesday in November of 2013.

“I was in ICU on Wednesday and Thursday, was in my own room on Friday and by Saturday I was washing my hair,” said Watson, 59. Her body sprung back from the transplant but she developed other issues and remained in Indiana for two years close to her practitioners. In December of 2015, she returned to Mississippi, hoping to continue her life as an art instructor. But when her kidneys began failing two years later, she returned to Indiana. She was readmitted to University Hospital in December and is undergoing dialysis three days a week.   

The only child of a cattle farmer, Watson says her hardships have made her rely on faith. Her father passed three years ago and her mother was murdered leaving Sunday church services. She’s raised seven children – including two foster children, and lost one child prematurely. She’s been divorced twice and lives alone in her Mississippi home.

“I know that my time here is meant to help others, to brighten someone else’s day,” said Watson. It’s not unusual for her to bake cookies as part of her occupational therapy and share them with staff. And some days she just gets a nod and knows there’s a patient who needs a little pep talk or some cheer. “It’s the little things that make the world of difference,” she said.

“I wouldn’t want go through all of the pain, uncertainty, and fear again but I also wouldn’t take anything for it. I know I’m here for a purpose. This is an amazingly compassionate, caring hospital and I’m just thankful to be alive.”

— By T.J. Banes, Associate Senior Journalist at IU Health.
   Reach Banes via email at T.J. Banes or on Twitter @tjbanes.

A neurology team full of experts will be at your bedside in 15 minutes or less. IU Health Methodist Hospital is the only in the state certified as a comprehensive stroke center, the highest level of acute care for treating strokes.  

An acute stroke team is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and will be at the bedside of a stroke patient within 15 minutes, usually less.

Round the clock, there are neurointerventionists, neuroradiologists, neurologists and a neurosurgeon.

There are dedicated neuro intensive care beds for complex stroke patients and extensive diagnostic testing capabilities always at the ready.

Not to mention, IU Health recently launched a Mobile Stroke Unit that will rush to the scene of patients having strokes and treat them on the spot. Read more here. 

Yes. If you’re having a stroke, IU Health Methodist Hospital is the place you’ll want to be. It is the only hospital in the state certified as a Comprehensive Stroke Center by The Joint Commission, in conjunction with the American Heart Association.

This year marks Methodist’s fourth year operating at the top level of stroke care in the nation. There are three other levels of certifications below a Comprehensive Stroke Center.

What it means for patients, in the simplest of terms, is better medical outcomes.  

“With a stroke, you come in and we want to save brain cells,” says Georgann Adams, CNS, IU Health’s stroke team program coordinator. “So, you want systems in place to move in rapid fashion.”

Methodist has those systems in place, meeting and, in many cases, exceeding the requirements set for certification.

“We treat the hemorrhagic stroke and ischemic stroke and everything in between,” Adams says. 

A hemorrhagic stroke is either a brain aneurysm burst or a weakened blood vessel leak. Blood spills into or around the brain, creating swelling and pressure. That damages cells and tissue in the brain.  

An ischemic stroke can be divided into two main types: thrombotic and embolic. An embolic stroke occurs when a blood clot forms somewhere else in the body, then breaks loose and travels to the brain through the bloodstream. The clot lodges in a blood vessel and blocks the flow of blood. A thrombotic stroke is when diseased or damaged cerebral arteries become blocked by the formation of a blood clot within the brain.

The Scoop On Methodist’s Comprehensive Stroke Center

Treatment capabilities: IV thrombolytics; endovascular therapy; microsurgical neurovascular clipping of aneurysms; neuroendovascular coiling of aneurysms; stenting of extracranial carotid arteries; and carotid endarterectomy.

Program medical director: Has extensive expertise and available 24/7.

Acute stroke team: Available 24/7, at bedside within 15 minutes.

Emergency medical services collaboration: Access to protocols used by EMS, routing plans and records from transfer.

Stroke unit: Dedicated neuro intensive care beds for complex stroke patients available 24/7; on-site neurointensivist coverage 24/7.

Initial assessment of patient: Emergency department physician.

Diagnostic testing capabilities: CT, MRI, labs, CTA, MRA, catheter angiography 24/7; other cranial and carotid duplex ultrasound, TEE, TTE as indicated.

Neurologist accessibility: Meets concurrently emergent needs of multiple complex stroke patients; written call schedule for attending physicians providing availability 24/7.

Other key factors in being a Comprehensive Stroke Center include transfer protocols, staff stroke education, providing educational opportunities, clinical performance measures, patient-centered research and guidelines.

“The most exciting thing in stroke is new ways to treat people and highly effective ways to help people,” says Jason Mackey, M.D., an IU Health neurologist. “Being a Comprehensive Stroke Center puts us at the forefront of that.”

— By Dana Benbow, Senior Journalist at IU Health.

   Reach Benbow via email dbenbow@iuhealth.org or on Twitter @danabenbow.