In order to help a stroke victim with the clotbusting drug– tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), the person has to get to the emergency room very quickly after the start of their symptoms. Within this short time window doctors can determine if the patient's condition and medical history will allow them to administer the drug.
Photo by Four12, used under creative commons license. (More info in details below.)
The Boston Globe reported that in a recent study by the state. "Of the roughly 8,000 patients in Massachusetts who suffer ischemic strokes each year — the type of stroke caused by a blood clot and that can be helped by tPA — just 4.5 percent of them made it to a hospital emergency department within three hours. That leaves thousands of stroke victims who don’t have the opportunity to even be evaluated for the drug, because the window had closed by the time they or a family member or friend recognized they were sick."
Here's how to recognize signs of a stroke in yourself or a family member.
This is from http://www.strokeassociation.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1020
And, here is one more test you can conduct on yourself or someone else to see if a stroke is a possibility. There are illustrations here.
http://www.strokecenter.org/trials/scales/cincinnati.html
Wikipedia has a good write up on how to do the test.
- Facial droop: Have the person smile or show his or her teeth. If one side doesn't move as well as the other so it seems to droop, that could be sign of a stroke.
- Normal: Both sides of face move equally
- Abnormal: One side of face does not move as well as the other (or at all)
- Arm drift: Have the person close his or her eyes and hold his or her arms straight out in front for about 10 seconds. If one arm does not move, or one arm winds up drifting down more than the other, that could be a sign of a stroke.
- Normal: Both arms move equally or not at all
- Abnormal: One arm does not move, or one arm drifts down compared with the other side
- Speech: Have the person say, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks," or some other simple, familiar saying. If the person slurs the words, gets some words wrong, or is unable to speak, that could be sign of stroke.
- Normal: Patient uses correct words with no slurring
- Abnormal: Slurred or inappropriate words or mute
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Writers: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photo: by Four12, used under creative commons license with some of his rights reserved. Please visit his photostream to see more excellent work from this photographer
Stroke signs screengrab from the American Stroke Association.
