Mia Amorosa collapsed on her bathroom floor in August 2025, paralyzed on one side by a sudden stroke, and lay there for about two hours before her daughter found her and called 911. More than a year later, the Long Beach woman stood face to face again with the doctors who she says saved her life, thanking the team at Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital for the care that got her walking out of the hospital just five days after she was carried in.
A Race Against the Clock
Amorosa was unable to move her arm or leg after the stroke hit, according to abc7.com. Once she reached Mount Sinai South Nassau in Oceanside, doctors used the hospital's biplane imaging system to remove a clot from her brain, a procedure known as an emergency mechanical thrombectomy that helps physicians diagnose and treat neurological conditions including stroke, the outlet reports. The ABC11 News report on the reunion describes Amorosa as a stroke survivor who has since returned to share her story with the medical team.
During a mechanical thrombectomy, surgeons thread a catheter from an artery in the groin up to the blocked vessel in the brain, then use a stent, and sometimes suction, to trap and withdraw the clot, according to the American Heart Association. Biplane imaging lets operators watch the blocked vessel from two angles at once during the procedure, while single-plane systems need two separate contrast injections and two X-rays to gather the same picture, according to a study published in the Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery.
“Minutes Matter” When a Stroke Strikes
Amorosa said the speed and completeness of the care she received at a single facility made all the difference. “Minutes matter when you're having a stroke, and I can't imagine moving from one place to another for the treatment I needed, I believe it saved my life,” she said. She thanked the medical team for their work, telling them, “they truly saved my life,” and said she has been able to experience important moments during her recovery, and still is.
Dr. M. Travis Caton, affiliated with Mount Sinai South Nassau, said reunions like this one reinforce what the team set out to do. “It's why we do what we do, stories like this are validating the work that we put in,” Caton said. Amorosa was discharged just five days after her stroke, with only a slight leg tremor remaining when she is stressed, per the same account.
Hospital's $10 Million Expansion Adds Round-the-Clock Capacity
Hospital officials say Mount Sinai South Nassau expanded its 24/7 emergency stroke treatment capabilities as part of a $10 million upgrade to its stroke and cerebrovascular program, according to Newsday. The expansion includes three neuroendovascular surgeons and an additional biplane imaging suite designed to provide around-the-clock interventional treatment, the newspaper reports. The hospital now operates two biplane systems total, including one inside a hybrid operating room and another positioned near the emergency department, offering real-time, multidimensional views of blood vessels in the brain.
Before the expansion, stroke patients who needed advanced care beyond what medication could provide had to be transported to other hospitals, Newsday reports. Hospital officials say Mount Sinai South Nassau is now the only South Shore hospital in Nassau County that can provide 24/7 emergency stroke treatment, according to a hospital news release cited by the newspaper.
What the Research Says About Biplane Systems
The push toward biplane imaging reflects a broader shift in stroke care, though the research comparing it to single-plane systems is mixed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of five studies covering 1,562 patients found no significant differences between single-plane and biplane systems in successful recanalization, complications, procedure time, fluoroscopy time, or contrast volume, according to the findings published in the Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery. That same analysis, however, found single-plane angiography was associated with a higher rate of favorable 90-day functional outcomes, with the study's authors concluding that both systems appear equally effective in most clinical and technical respects, making availability and procedural requirements key factors in choosing between them.
A separate multicenter analysis published in Scientific Reports examined 189 thrombectomy procedures performed between June and August 2016.
Timing also appears to matter significantly in thrombectomy outcomes. Research published in Neurology found that longer in-hospital time between randomization and reperfusion correlated with worse disability and lower functional independence among patients treated with endovascular thrombectomy, while the benefit of the procedure was found to be consistently preserved across an extended six-to-24-hour treatment window when patients were selected using advanced imaging criteria.
