July 30, 2006

• Stroke Guidelines

  Nony Godwin sent me the following message.  Perhaps you have
  received it in an email.  Whatever your history with it might be,
  please read it and act on your knowledge.  Ironically, several
  years ago, Lorena was on the phone with one of my aunts even as my aunt
  suffered a stroke.  My aunt, working alone at her office, 
  was slurring her words and was verging on incoherence.  We called
  my uncle who went to the office and found her down, whereupon he called
  for an ambulance.  My aunt has regained her independence, but she
  is nowhere close to being the brilliant, active woman she was.  I
  have often wondered how things might have turned out differently had we
  called 911 immediately upon observing the symptoms.  However, at
  the time, stroke was the farthest thing from our minds; it was
  something that happened to other families and other people. 
  Little did we know...  Anyway, please read this and use it. 
  The possibility of being mistaken and "offending" someone is far
  outweighed by the chance that you might save someone's quality of life,
  which, in this case, is of more importance than saving the life itself.

                                            
    STROKE IDENTIFICATION:
  
  During
  a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall.  She assured
  everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) and had
  just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her
  cleaned up and got her a new plate of food.  She appeared a bit
  shaken up, but Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the
  evening. Ingrid's husband called later telling everyone that his wife
  had been taken to the hospital.  At 6:00pm, Ingrid passed
  away.  She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to
  identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today.
  Some don't die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead.
  It
  only takes a minute to read this...
  
  A
  neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can
  totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting
  a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for
  within 3 hours, which is tough.
                                               
  RECOGNIZING A STROKE
  
  Thank
  God for the sense to remember the "3" steps, STR . Read and Learn!
  
  Sometimes
  symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of
  awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when
  people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms 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 to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE   (Coherently) (i.e. . . It is sunny out today.)
  
                    
  R
  *        Ask
  him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
  

  
     
  NOTE
  : Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the
  person to 'stick' out their

                  
  tongue. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other
  

                   
  that is also an indication of a stroke. 
  If
  he or she has trouble with

                   
  ANY ONE of these tasks, call 911 immediately !! and describe the
  

                   
  symptoms to the dispatcher.

  The statement that a neurologist can totally reverse the effects of
  a stroke completely if able to treat the patient within three hours is
  at best hyperbole and at worst an outright lie.  That depends
  entirely on the type of stroke.  I witnessed Lorena's stroke, and
  we called 911 immediately.  She was having medical care with a few
  minutes and was in a major trauma center within an hour after having
  been CareFlited to Fort Worth.  Even so, her neurologists were
  amazed that she had even survived that long, and they held out
  absolutely no hope of reversing the stroke.  In fact, they saw her
  survival to be miraculous.  Many stroke victims could be saved,
  however, with prompt medical attention.  No one should have to go
  through this hell.

  • 1:15 pm
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