A DORSET stroke survivor fears thousands could miss out on a ‘miracle treatment’ which saved him.

Dr John Stephens, 58, had a stroke at his home in Spetisbury, near Blandford, in September last year.

He was getting out of bed ready for work as a GP at The Harvey Practice in Merley, where he has cared for the local community for 27 years.

His wife Margo, 59, is a speech and language therapist specialising in stroke and instantly recognised what was happening.

She called 999 and John was taken to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital for initial scans before being blue-lighted to Southampton General Hospital for a thrombectomy.

John said: “I was scared and frightened and just let them get on with it. They were comforting me. The consultant held my hand and said ‘Come on John, we are going to go get this done and it will be fine’. It was very compassionate medicine. It was better than any drug they could have given me. I was terrified. I thought I was going to die. This guy was absolutely brilliant.”

After three days in Southampton, John was transferred to Poole Hospital where he spent three weeks on the Stroke Unit before he moved to a private care home for ten days of intensive physio.

John added: “Like most GPs, I knew of thrombectomy but I’ve never had a patient who had had one and I didn’t really know much about it. Now I know first-hand the importance of rapid access to both thrombolysis and thrombectomy.”

The Stroke Association is calling for more funding from the Government and a workforce plan from NHS England to provide more staff and equipment to make the procedure available everywhere, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Jacqui Cuthbert, the Stroke Association’s associate director for the South West and the Channel Islands, said: “Thrombectomy is a miracle treatment that pulls patients back from near-death and alleviates the worst effects of stroke. It’s shocking that so many patients are missing out and being saddled with unnecessary disability.

“A small investment, could save the NHS billions of pounds and that’s before we even start to think of the life-changing benefit to stroke patients.”