Binti Lee was only 34 years old when she collapsed at home. Her boyfriend was unable to rouse her and called 911 and an ambulance took her to Methodist Hospital in Houston which in 2008 became the first certified comprehensive stroke center in the United States.. The doctors in the emergency room took one look at her and her 30-year-old boyfriend and made some assumptions, wrong as it turned out. Diagnosed with depression over the protests of her boyfriend who kept asking if it could have been a stroke, Lee was sent home with a Zoloft prescription. Less than 36 hours later, at a different hospital, a doctor looked at Lee and confirmed in 40 minutes that she’d had a stroke. A stroke from which she most likely would have made a full recovery if she’d received immediate treatment at the first ER. Significant findings were that despite all the information to the contrary in recent years, doctors in emergency rooms are still misdiagnosing stroke victims, especially if they are presented with a patient who is young, a minority and a woman. And that while a particular hospital may be the best place around to treat a stroke, it may not be best at diagnosing it.
