// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
'My treatment was a miracle,' says stroke patient as new 24-hour service rolled out
By the time Gemma arrived at hospital, she had numbness, could not walk or talk and felt "locked in my body"
When Gemma O'Hara woke up in the night with "intense pain" in her neck, sickness and vertigo she knew something was "not right".
The 40-year-old, who had just come back from holiday, had suffered a brain stem stroke.
Gemma was able to have a thrombectomy, which removes blood clots and restores blood flow to the brain, a procedure she has said is a "miracle treatment" that has enabled her to recover well.
Northern Ireland's regional thrombectomy service, which had only been available between 08:00 and 17:00 is now operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week after a £5m investment through Stormont's Programme for Government (PfG) Elective Care funding.
Gemma, from Ballymena in County Antrim, said the expansion is "amazing" because of the difference the treatment made to her recovery.
"You have to get treated so fast. You can't let time go past when it's to do with your brain," she said. "If I didn't get it in time I wouldn't be the way I am now."
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'I had a stroke at the weekend so didn't get a thrombectomy'