PBMC Neuroscience Center | Northwell Health​

Fundraising Gala Video Showcasing the Peconic Bay Medical Center’s new Neuroscience Center

Client: Northwell Health
Industry: Healthcare
Video Type: Corporate
Messaging Type: Fundraising

About This Video Project

Discover how Peconic Bay Medical Center, in partnership with Northwell Health, is transforming stroke care in Eastern Suffolk County with the new Bill and Ruth Ann Harnisch Neuroscience Center. In this interview style video, we highlight the critical advancements in stroke treatment, including the ability to perform life-saving thrombectomies, and hear from the dedicated team of doctors, staff, philanthropists, and patients who are making this vision a reality.

This center will be the first of its kind in the region, ensuring that patients experiencing strokes no longer have to travel west, saving precious time—and lives. Through interviews with medical professionals and personal testimonies from patients like Diana, who was treated for a stroke, you’ll learn about the life-changing impact of this project and the power of community support.

This gala video was used to showcase the Peconic Bay Medical Center as they strive to become a stroke-conscious community and elevate healthcare for the entire East End.

Transcription

Peconic Bay Medical Center is the medical center for Eastern Suffolk County. We consider ourselves responsible for the comprehensive healthcare for 400 square miles of geography and over a quarter million people. Every day we see close to a thousand patients that come to our emergency department with a stroke or stroke-like illness. Next level for us is to be able to provide for a thrombectomy, being able to go into the brain to retrieve a clot. The longer you go when a blood vessel is blocked, the more brain cells you will lose. You can imagine how much time it takes to ready somebody and transfer it out to South Shore. We can save patients that amount of time that they would have to wait for the transfer that we’ve given them the best possible chance to survive a major stroke. Now we are on trajectory with an actual plan and funding to make this happen. Right now, anybody that comes from the East End, that needs to go further west for care. It’s an extra 41 minutes and 41 minutes in brain time is life. Peconic Bay Medical Center, the medical team is tremendous. The nursing support team is terrific and it has a backing in Northwell. So as I told my wife, it was not a no-brainer, it was a brainer. When we open the Bill and Ruth Ann Harnisch Neurosciences Center, we will be the only thrombectomy capable center in Eastern Suffolk County. It doesn’t exist today and it’s our responsibility to fill that void and that’s what this is all about. We’ve been to the States many times on holiday and the idea was that we would be on the island from Friday to Sunday and on Sunday morning, really, we were just getting ready to get packed up to go to the airport. I went into the kitchen and I was standing by the fridge and I looked at Diana and looked away. But after about 10 seconds, it became clear that she was non-responsive. Diana was taken to a peconic hospital, certainly within about 20 minutes. By the time I got to the hospital, she was having a CAT scan and within a few minutes, she came back to the room. And I think at that stage, because of the scan, decided that she should be flown to South Shore. On the way to South Shore, Dr. Young gave me a call. Dr. Young really, really stood out as someone with empathy, communication, explaining what happens, the procedures that he’d managed to achieve. That gave me and the children a level of comfort. The speed at which I was treated has brought minimal damage rather than maximum damage. My speech is coming back. I’m able now to formulate whole sentences. Life is building up and from the bottom of my heart, I thank you. I think this is the beginning of legacy work, that we become a stroke-conscious community so that we prevent and that we treat appropriately. We have a great need for more neurosciences, more neurologists and neurosurgeons to come to the East End. In order for us to elevate the community, I think the community has to help elevate itself. One way they can do that is to donate to the foundation. Because you invested, people are around who otherwise perhaps wouldn’t be. Please pay things forward because you’re saving somebody’s life, you’re saving the lives of people around them, and you’re saving people’s potential. My philosophy is, don’t wait. Giving while living, giving what you can, when you can, is the best way to make the changes that you want to see in the world.

To learn more: https://www.northwell.edu