[Carol Lin, Cnn Anchor:] In Birmingham, a doctor at the University of Alabama Hospital is taking some unique approaches to handling victims of stroke. The blunt-talking, pioneering doctor is getting results, too. CNN medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland spoke to the doctor about some people, well, they're calling him a cowboy.
[Rhonda Rowland, Cnn Medical Correspondent:] This is the care of stroke victims begins every morning at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
[Dr. Camilo Gomez, Univ. Of Alabama-birmingham:] No more scans. No more surprises.
[Rowland:] Leading the team is Dr. Camilo Gomez.
[Gomez:] This is a major improvement. You look back, look at this, two days ago, look at that lung.
[Rowland:] He drills his team as if they were in the Army, a technique he picked up while serving in the Gulf War.
[Gomez:] What's your plan? Speak. Find a way to do it without doing that. I'm sure you can. Be creative, for once. Anything else? We're moving out of here. Thank you.
[Rowland:] Intimidating?
[Gomez:] Very good, very good. You're getting better.
[Dr. Sean Orr, Senior Fellow:] He makes it very clear right up front that he's a taskmaster. It's pretty obvious that in any interaction with him that he really demands a lot of the people around him. He demands excellence.
[Gomez:] When God sends us down here to help patients, he doesn't say be polite. I think that it's important that we recognize that these are critically ill patients. And my responsibility is the patients.
[Rowland:] Critical patients like this victim of a brain hemorrhage. He arrived the night before from Selma, Alabama, and immediately was given a simple brain shunt.
[Gomez:] Considering the severity of his stroke, I think he's doing fairly well.
[Rowland:] And what would happen if he'd stayed in Selma?
[Gomez:] He would have died.
[Rowland:] Dr. Gomez says his team doesn't do magic. It's attention to detail and the use of cutting-edge therapies. [on camera]: There are a number of stroke centers around the country, but only a dozen or so that, like the University of Alabama, are using techniques to control temperature, techniques still considered to be pioneering. [voice-over]: For example: hypothermia, chilling stroke victims to at least 94 degrees to slow brain damage.
[Gomez:] I'm more interested in, "Who should we be treating with hypothermia?" than I am "Should we be treating people with hypothermia?," which I think the answer is yes.
[Rowland:] He routinely uses simple techniques acetaminophen and cooling blankets to control fever which is commonly seen in stroke patients.
[Gomez:] He'll have this simply for temperature control. And why was he a candidate? Because his temperature was elevated. And we take a very, very harsh approach to that.
[Rowland:] Some studies have shown fever can damage the brain. But there isn't proof yet controlling fever is beneficial after stroke.
[Gomez:] Why wouldn't you treat it? You know, this is an abnormal reaction. It's something that has been shown to be damaging. You have a lot less to lose by treating it than by not treating it. Very still, ma'am. Don't breathe. Don't move. Don't swallow.
[Rowland:] Instead of recommending standard surgery to clear blocked neck arteries, Dr. Gomez is among a small group of physicians using a highly controversial approach: balloons and stents, tiny metal devices to open arteries in the neck and deep within the brain, techniques developed decades ago for heart patients.
[Gomez:] I think the scalpel is an obsolete tool. And I think that surgeons themselves have realized that.
[Rowland:] Would you describe him as aggressive?
[Orr:] Very aggressive appropriately so. He has been labeled a cowboy by some people, by some detractors.
[Rowland:] Dr. Gomez admits six years ago, he was pushed from a hospital in Saint Louis.
[Gomez:] What I will not do is compromise my principles in the care of the patients for politics. And if that makes me politically incorrect and undesirable in certain circles, well, that's too bad. But I'm a very reasonable guy. I mean, I people love me.
[Rowland:] Birmingham's hospital administrators say doctors like Gomez are a benefit to patients.
[Unidentified Male:] We're delighted Saint Louis chased him away and we've got him here.
[Dr. Susana Bowling, Fellow:] There's a big change from the time before he was here and after he arrived here.
[Rowland:] And do you think these techniques are working? Do you think the patients are getting better?
[Bowling:] Absolutely. I have no doubt.
[Rowland:] And Dr. Gomez has no doubt. He sees stroke victims walk out of the hospital and back to their lives ever day.
[Gomez:] Stay out of trouble.
[Unidentified Female:] OK.
[Gomez:] Don't come back. This is not a Hilton. Don't come back.
[Unidentified Female:] All right.
[Gomez:] All right.
[Rowland:] Rhonda Rowland, CNN, Birmingham, Alabama.