What to Do If You Think You Have a Stroke

First, if you google right now because you think that you or someone close to you may have a stroke, CALL 911 RIGHT NOW AND TELL THE OPERATOR TO SEND AN AMBULANCE. TELL THE OPERATOR YOU THINK YOU HAVE A STROKE. Do it now. Do not wait. Read no further.

For those of you who are just curious or who spend all the hours before bed thinking about all the things that could kill you in the future, note that about 800,000 Americans suffer from strokes every year. If left untreated, stroke can cause permanent brain damage or death, and stroke is the fifth leading cause of death among adults in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This is a scary statistic, but the good news is that doctors can treat a stroke if they catch it early, minimizing the damage. The key word here is early. Research shows that every minute brain tissue is deprived of oxygen, you lose 1.9 million neurons and 4 billion synapses, so time is of the essence.

What is a stroke?

A stroke is essentially a “brain attack.” When a blood vessel is blocked, the brain tissue on the opposite side of the obstruction is deprived of oxygen and glucose, and brain cells begin to die off. If this happens to your heart, you are having a heart attack. When this happens in your brain, it’s a stroke.

There are two different types of strokes: ischemic and hemorrhagic . According to Joshua Stillman, MD, associate professor at Columbia University and director of emergency medicine at Columbia University’s New York Stroke Center, ischemic strokes account for about 85 percent of all strokes. They behave like heart attacks because a clot in the blood vessels of the brain or leading to the brain blocks blood flow to the brain tissue. A hemorrhagic stroke occurs when a ruptured blood vessel or ruptured aneurysm invades your brain tissue, and accounts for about 15 percent of all strokes.

How do I know if I have a stroke?

There are a number of symptoms associated with a stroke, but two things are key: they come on suddenly and usually affect only one side of the body. “The most important manifestation of symptoms is that it is a sudden onset,” Stillman said. “You’re okay one minute and not the next. It’s a pretty dramatic, sudden change in neurological symptoms. “

Dr. Sarah Rostanski, a neurologist at the Center for Stroke and Neurovascular Diseases at New York University at Langon , said common symptoms include “numbness, loss of vision, loss of vision in one eye or visual field, especially on the left side of vision.”

“Symptoms that are not so one-sided are slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, double vision, speech problems, misuse of words, or inability to speak a word,” she said. You can also use words that don’t make any sense, you may have difficulty understanding words, or the person may not understand you.

Other symptoms, Stillman said, may include sudden loss of facial symmetry, weakness, sensory change in one arm or leg, one side of the face or body. “It could be a change in balance, all of a sudden you can’t balance the way you used to. It could have been a change in gait, ”he said.

Again, it’s important to remember that these changes are sudden .

“Sudden neurological symptoms really should be suggestive of a stroke,” Rostanski said.

Headaches are not a common symptom of stroke, but sometimes they accompany a hemorrhagic stroke. In this case, “it’s a sudden headache. It goes from start to peak in, say, 20 or 30 minutes. And it peaks high, like 10 out of 10, says Stillman.

Good mnemonics to keep in mind. FAST :. F ace, eff A, S Peech, T IME. If someone has a slack on one side of their face, or cannot raise their hand, or their speech is slurred, call emergency services immediately.

What should I do if I think I have it?

If you think you or someone you love is having a stroke, call emergency services right away. There are a number of interventions that doctors can take to minimize the damage from a stroke, but they must be completed within 4.5 hours (some studies even say there are three), and the sooner the better.

“If you’re around someone who has sudden speech changes or weakness on one side of the body, call an ambulance and go to the emergency room,” Stillman said. “Don’t call your best friend. Don’t call your doctor. Call an ambulance. “Ambulances can be expensive, but you need their speed and you need paramedics who know where to take you and can tell doctors to be ready for you.

“When you call emergency services, it’s important to determine that you think it’s a stroke,” Rostanski said. “This launches the whole stroke treatment chain. If EMT thinks about a stroke when contacting you, they can notify the hospital in advance. “

It’s also important to tell doctors when you first started experiencing symptoms. “Emergency doctors will be prepared immediately, as time is of the essence.” Stillman said. “It’s like a gunshot wound to the brain.”

In short, don’t go to the clinic, don’t try to oversleep the symptoms, don’t ignore them. Call 911.

What’s going on in the hospital?

Once doctors determine that you have an ischemic stroke, they will most likely give you an intravenous injection of tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, which can unblock an artery. This must be done within 4.5 hours, otherwise nothing will work.

Within 4.5-24 hours, doctors can insert a catheter through an artery in the groin and into the brain, which will directly unblock the blood vessel. If you have a large blood clot, after tPA, doctors may perform a so-called mechanical thrombectomy, which will remove the clot. Occasionally, you may be transferred to a specialized stroke center after your tPA is given because these procedures are urgent but less disastrous and not all hospitals are equipped to treat strokes. “It is atypical to transfer a patient with a complicated stroke,” Rostanski said.

Can I mistake something for a stroke?

Stillman says there are several ailments that can be mistaken for a stroke, such as a nerve injury, although, unlike a stroke, these are usually painful. However, if you even suspect a stroke, “Go to the hospital immediately,” he said. “The earlier within 4.5 hours, the better. If you manage to come within 30 minutes, you will be better than within 1 hour. “

Who has a stroke?

Risk groups for stroke include people with high blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms (such as atrial fibrillation), as well as smoking and diabetes. Older adults are more likely to suffer a stroke because “increasing age is a significant risk factor,” Stillman said.

However, strokes do occur in young people, especially in smokers, heavy drug users, and sometimes women on birth control pills, as they can cause blood clots. “Stroke is rare in young people, but I see young people with strokes all the time,” Rostanski said. “And the consequences of a stroke in a young person, given the potential of many, many years of disability, do require treatment as quickly as possible.”

So again, if you have sudden stroke-like symptoms: “Don’t oversleep, don’t ignore the symptoms. Call 911, ”said Rostansky. “It’s okay if you’re wrong. We don’t catch strokes if we don’t suspect them. “