DENVER -- There's a new minimally invasive procedure to help people suffering from signs of a stroke.

It's a stent about the length of a dime that looks like a little, flexible mesh tube.

It may be small, but it has done wonders for Polly Johnson.

"Despite the fact that they put this thing in my head, I'm not impaired," said Johnson.

Johnson was at one time suffering from signs of a minor stroke. The constant dizziness and blurred vision started to affect her life.

"This side of my head wasn't exactly numb, but it was blank. The sound was gone," said Johnson.

"These are basically warning signs that I may have a permanent stroke if I don't get something done," said Dr. Donald Frei, a neuro-radiologist.

Frei said Johnson was suffering from narrowing of an artery in her brain.

"If someone has a greater than 70 percent narrowing of a major artery in the brain, even on best medical therapy, they have a one in four chance of having a stroke in the first year," Frei said.

Frei put a small catheter in Johnson's groin to access her artery. Then he inserted the wingspan stent to help the blood flow.

An X-ray of her artery after the stent was put in showed that there was no narrowing of the artery at all.

"The amazing thing is that all those symptoms are gone -- every single one of them is gone," Johnson said.

To learn more about the Wingspan stent, click here.