Sunday, January 01, 2006
RECOGNIZING A STROKEDuring a BBQ a friend stumbled and took a little fall - sheassured everyone that she was fine (they offered to callparamedics) 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 enjoyingherself the rest of the evening. Ingrid's husband called later tellingeveryone 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 iden! tify the signs of a stroke perhapsIngrid would be with us today. It only takes a minute to read this-A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally.He saidthe trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed and getting tothe patient within 3 hours which is toughRECOGNIZING A STROKERead and Learn!Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify.Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The strokevictim may suffer brain damage when people nearby fail to recognizethe symptoms of a stroke. Now doctors say a bystander can recognize astroke by asking three simple questions:1. *Ask the individual to SMILE.2. *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.3. *Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) - (i.e. .. It is sunny out today)If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks,call 9-1-1 immediately and describe the symptoms to thedispatcher.After discovering that a group of non-medical volunteersCould identify facial weakness, arm weakness and speech problems,researchers urged the general public to learn the three questions.They presented their conclusions at the American Stroke Association's annual meeting last February.Widespread use of this test could result in prompt diagnosis andtreatment of the stroke and prevent brain damage
1/01/2006 02:29:00 PM
