individual patient that is tailored specifically to what's occurring, to where in the brain the ischemia is, to how large a brain region is being threatened, and to what the mechanism is that's producing that injy to the brain. mri scanning vified that karen was experiencg an ischemic stroke. dr. saver: in this type of stroke, a blood clot has blocked blood flow to a region of the brain. not enough oxygen and nutrients are reaching nerve tissues, and then the tissues die as a result. tpa is a proven agent for the treatment of ischemic stroke. it is a clot buster. it reopens clots that are blocking blood vessels and restores blood flow to threatened regions before irreversible injury has occurred. one of the main surgeons felt it was very important that i see her right before they started the procedure, and so they took me in, and they were just very quickly preparing her. at that point, she wasn't... she couldn't speak, she couldn't say anything. we didn't have more than a minute, and karen doesn't remember anything. i just went in and tried to pretend that it was no big deal, and it was