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Medical Scribblings - Wednesday, 27 September 2006

The editors were good enough to send me the following e-mail about recognising strokes and taking urgent action to admit the patient to hospital now that there are better ways of treating this condition.

Recognizing a STROKE..

Remember The First Three Letters...

My friend sent this to me and encouraged me to post it and spread the word. I agree. If everyone can remember something this simple, we could save some folks. Seriously..

Please read:

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 just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food - while she appeared a bit shaken up, 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 999 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved.

What is so important is preventing strokes rather than trying to repair the damage after the event. There are a number of things that make a huge difference to your risk profile.

The most obvious is to stop smoking. On a personal note my father died from a stroke having been a smoker since he was in the army. He said that before being called up he hardly smoked but then they put him in a tank gave him some packets of ciggies and told him to drive through mine fields. He survived the minefields just but the cigarettes got him in the end.

Next Blood Pressure - do book in with Sue our health care assistant to have your BP taken - it won't cost you a penny and could save your life.

As always Cholesterol and diet play a big part. The same old message is keep down on the animal fats and refined carbs. (sugar, biscuits, jam etc etc - you don't need me to go through the list ). What you need are lots of fruit and veg and fish. As an aside I've been invited to Japan next year to lecture so I will have to get used to all that fresh fish. The Japanese as you may be aware have the greatest life expectancy.

Anyway do look after yourselves and if you want a copy of the email I'm sure the editors will be happy to oblige.

John Schofield