Stroke Prevention & Recognition
Stroke symptoms: important actions you should take to perhaps save your life as well as creating a better quality of life after your stroke.
Similar to a heart attack, a stroke is an emergency that requires you to seek immediate medical attention. Perhaps the most important action you can take is getting to the hospital as soon as you recognize these symptoms. Immediate treatment is the key to improving your outcome.
Rapid diagnosis and treatment of a stroke can minimize damage to your brain tissue and improve the chances of survival. Do not hesitate calling for an ambulance as your symptoms subside as many seemingly attacks are often followed by full-blown strokes.
Here are some of the symptoms of a stroke and the immediate actions you should take:
Similar to a heart attack, a stroke is an emergency that requires you to seek immediate medical attention. Perhaps the most important action you can take is getting to the hospital as soon as you recognize these symptoms. Immediate treatment is the key to improving your outcome.
Rapid diagnosis and treatment of a stroke can minimize damage to your brain tissue and improve the chances of survival. Do not hesitate calling for an ambulance as your symptoms subside as many seemingly attacks are often followed by full-blown strokes.
Here are some of the symptoms of a stroke and the immediate actions you should take:
- sudden weakness or numbness in the face, arm, or leg on one side of the body
- sudden loss, blurring, or dimness of vision or difficulty seeing in one or both eyes
- mental confusion, loss of memory, or sudden loss of consciousness
- slurred speech, loss of speech, or problems understanding other people
- a sudden, severe headache with no apparent cause
- unexplained dizziness, drowsiness, lack of coordination, or falls
- nausea and vomiting, especially when accompanied by any of the above symptoms
Recognizing a Stroke
STROKE: Remember the 1st Three Letters....S.T.R.
Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
New Sign of a Stroke -------- Stick out Your Tongue
(Ask the person to 'stick' out his/her tongue.. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.
Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
- S Ask the individual to SMILE..
- T Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (i.e. It is sunny out today)
- R Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
New Sign of a Stroke -------- Stick out Your Tongue
(Ask the person to 'stick' out his/her tongue.. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.
Actions To Take
- Stay calm, but don't downplay any of the symptoms or hesitate to take prompt action.
- Call or have someone call an ambulance. (Dial 911 in most parts of the United States.) Be sure to give your name, telephone number, and exact whereabouts.Note the time of the onset of symptoms.
- While waiting for the ambulance, the person having the stroke symptoms should be made as comfortable as possible and should not eat or drink anything other than water.
- If an ambulance cannot arrive within 20 to 30 minutes, have a family member, neighbor, or someone else drive the stroke patient to the hospital. Under no circumstances should the person experiencing the stroke symptoms drive.
- Notify the stroke patient's doctor. The doctor can provide the hospital with the patient's medical history, which may be important for determining the best treatment.
- At the hospital, be sure to list any medical conditions the stroke patient has (such as high blood pressure or diabetes), any allergies (particularly allergies to medications), and any medications the patient is currently taking, including over-the-counter remedies, vitamins, and dietary supplements.
If You Have a Stoke there is New Treatment
Hospitals across the country are changing the way they treat strokes after a battery of recent clinical trials found that swift surgical intervention improves the odds that patients will function normally again.Instead of trying to break up the clots that cause strokes using only intravenous medicine, hospitals are increasingly offering a surgery along with the medicine while also speeding up treatment to reduce brain damage.
In the most recent of a half-dozen studies published in the past six months, 60 percent of patients who received both the surgery and the medicine regained the ability to walk, talk and live independently, while just 35 percent who received only the medicine recovered to the same degree, according to an article published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In the procedure, known as a mechanical thrombectomy, a tube is inserted into the patient’s femoral artery near the groin and guided to clots near the brain. The doctor then pushes a device to the end of the tube, where a tiny cylindrical piece of mesh expands to extract the clot, restoring blood flow.
What’s new is the added focus on starting the procedure quickly, advances in the medical devices used and better selection of patients who might benefit from the procedure, said Dr. Jeffrey Saver, a University of California at Los Angeles neurologist and one of the lead authors of the most recent study.
Still, the procedure doesn’t work for everyone, and results vary.
In the most recent of a half-dozen studies published in the past six months, 60 percent of patients who received both the surgery and the medicine regained the ability to walk, talk and live independently, while just 35 percent who received only the medicine recovered to the same degree, according to an article published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In the procedure, known as a mechanical thrombectomy, a tube is inserted into the patient’s femoral artery near the groin and guided to clots near the brain. The doctor then pushes a device to the end of the tube, where a tiny cylindrical piece of mesh expands to extract the clot, restoring blood flow.
What’s new is the added focus on starting the procedure quickly, advances in the medical devices used and better selection of patients who might benefit from the procedure, said Dr. Jeffrey Saver, a University of California at Los Angeles neurologist and one of the lead authors of the most recent study.
Still, the procedure doesn’t work for everyone, and results vary.
“Time is quality of life”
The new stroke responses are much the same as recent changes in heart attack protocols. It is necessary to transport patients as quickly as possible to a hospital with the appropriate device to treat the kind of heart attack the victims are having.
Many hospitals that don’t offer thrombectomies are equipped to do a CT scan and start administering the clot-busting medicine. Some patients are then sent elsewhere for surgery, though such transfers consume precious time.
Ideally, everyone would live within 20 minutes of a comprehensive stroke center and it is a good idea to identify those medical centers that preform thrombectomies.
Along with being the leading cause of disability, stroke is the fifth-leading cause of death in the country, according to the American Stroke Association. About 795,000 people have a stroke each year, and the number is expected to rise as baby boomers grow older.
Many hospitals that don’t offer thrombectomies are equipped to do a CT scan and start administering the clot-busting medicine. Some patients are then sent elsewhere for surgery, though such transfers consume precious time.
Ideally, everyone would live within 20 minutes of a comprehensive stroke center and it is a good idea to identify those medical centers that preform thrombectomies.
Along with being the leading cause of disability, stroke is the fifth-leading cause of death in the country, according to the American Stroke Association. About 795,000 people have a stroke each year, and the number is expected to rise as baby boomers grow older.
Risk factors
Common risk factors for stroke include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and cigarette smoking, along with age, heredity and past strokes or heart attacks. Women have more strokes than men each year, and African-Americans die of stroke at a higher rate than Caucasians.
This information in part comes from a Chicago Tribune article by by Wes Venteicher. Read the entire article including diagrams of the new surgery for stroke at http://eedition.chicagotribune.com/Olive/ODE/ChicagoTribune2/
Medical Disclaimer: This information is not intended to substitute for the advice of a physician.
This information in part comes from a Chicago Tribune article by by Wes Venteicher. Read the entire article including diagrams of the new surgery for stroke at http://eedition.chicagotribune.com/Olive/ODE/ChicagoTribune2/
Medical Disclaimer: This information is not intended to substitute for the advice of a physician.
Personal experience of someone who suffered a stroke
If you have experienced a stroke or have a friend or loved one who has,this eBook written by Mickey Padnos, an American currently living in France and recovering from a major stroke will be helpful and provide insights on what someone who has had a stroke is thinking and has gone through.
He starts with the actual stroke itself and takes you through his thought processes and therapy.
Read this most excellent diary of someone who had a stroke themselves and recovered.
Check out this eBook http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008NMCGU4
He starts with the actual stroke itself and takes you through his thought processes and therapy.
Read this most excellent diary of someone who had a stroke themselves and recovered.
Check out this eBook http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008NMCGU4