More than 100 East Texas nurses, physical therapists, speech therapists, social workers and students gathered Friday at the Baker Pattillo Student Center to share information about caring for patients with neurological deficits such as strokes and traumatic brain injuries during the ninth annual Neurological Conference.

Gil Hanke, manager of speech language services at Nacogdoches Medical Center who has been instrumental in the conference since its inception, said this year's conference focused on what occurs during the first four days of a neurological deficit.

"It goes from before they enter the emergency room to what happens in ICU," he said. "It's what goes on in those first four critical days."

Laurie Hurst, director of rehabilitation services at Nacogdoches Medical Center, who likewise has been involved with the conference since its beginning, said the conference featured several different speakers from various areas of the patient's medical care during those four days.

She said the knowledge gained at conferences helps attendees to understand when its appropriate to bring in a speech pathologist or at what point the physical therapist should be brought in.

"This is truly a multi-displinary approach," she said, referring to treating neurological deficits. "And, all members need to be on the same page."

Hanke said each of the speakers represented one of those disciplines.

Speakers ranged from Dr. Blaise Ferraraccio, who identified how to recognize the signs and symptoms of neuropathology and prevention of brain injuries, to a personal account from Nacogdoches Memorial Hospital social worker Dan Dohanich, who described how his life changed after his own brain injury. Conference founder, Dr. Mike Randle, was unable to attend, but his colleague, Dr. Neal Haynes, spoke on his behalf about the surgical intervention for neurological deficits.

The annual conference not only enables attendees to learn more about the treatment of neurological deficits, but also provides them an opportunity to receive continuing education credit, according to Mark Scott with the Pineywoods Area Health Education Center, who co-sponsored the conference.

Scott said his organization has been involved for the past three years and works to help coordinate the facilities of each conference, as well as facilitate continuing education for health professionals who attend.

The conference got its start in 2000 after local physicians and neurological personnel discussed how to disseminate information about the neurological resources available in the community.

"We saw a definite community-wide need," Hurst said.

She said one of the things they identified was the need for people to be aware that they didn't need to drive to Houston or Dallas if they experienced early symptoms of a stroke, and in fact, doing that was dangerous.

"Both hospitals provide outstanding care (for strokes) as long as people get to them in time," Hanke said. "There's this window of time of when we can give medication, which is three hours, and we don't want people who have symptoms to think 'I'll take a nap,' and then they're in a full-blown stroke."

The discussion eventually led the group to develop the idea of having a conference for health professionals who deal with strokes and other types of neurological deficits, which has continued to grow each year, according to organizers.