Dr Veronica Pacheco is an emergency medicine specialist in the National Directorate of Mobile Health Care Services of Ecuador’s Ministry of Public Health and a treating physician in the emergency department at Pablo Arturo Suarez Hospital in Quito. As the administrative custodian of the agreement between the Ministry of Public Health and the Angels Initiative to strengthen the national health system for stroke care, she plays a key role in facilitating the training of healthcare professionals in the proper management of stroke. In 2024, Dr Pacheco led the development of the first national protocol for prehospital stroke care in Latin America, formulating guidelines that are now being implemented throughout the country. It is her passion to be there at the moment people need her, Dr Pacheco says. “Emergency medicine has allowed me to be there in many difficult moments for certain people, to save lives, and to give someone back their family or their quality of life. That has been crucial in my life.”