Gem

A sudden stroke is like a brush fire in the brain, burning over a million neurons per minute. Without intervention stroke causes debilitating neurological damage, or even death. Medical researchers have long known that a drug that could lessen or prevent the damage done by stroke could save countless lives and be worth a fortune. It might even win a Nobel Prize. Over the years, drug companies have created what they think are effective stroke drugs. But when it came down to human testing, it proved impossible. But Dr. Mike Tymianski thinks he’s not only created a stroke drug that works, he also believes he has finally figured out a way to test it. Now he just has to prove it. The Stroke Doc is a high-stakes medical drama that follows the final stages of testing this drug on stroke victims. It takes place in the back of screaming ambulances, in hospital corridors and emergency wards around the world, taking us from Muskoka to Manila, where success is measured by tiny changes on an MRI, scrutinized in the middle of the night. And where failure could mean the loss of decades of research and tens of millions of dollars. Is Dr. Tymianski’s drug just another in a long line of failed stroke drugs? Or is he actually on the cusp of the biggest Canadian medical innovation since the discovery of insulin?