It’s time to reconsider what you think you know about strokes

By Melissa Overton

Did you know that stroke is the leading cause of disability in the U.S.? Recently a new campaign was launched that says, “When it comes to stroke, it’s ok to overreact.”

Often when someone begins to have signs and symptoms of a stroke, one of two things happen: The person thinks they just feel bad and they go lie down to rest, hoping the symptoms will go away. Or they get help.

Unfortunately, more times than not, people do not seek help. We hear the loved ones say, “I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t want to bother anyone.”

In health care, we also hear people say, “Well, when you have a stroke, nothing can be done anyways except put them in a nursing home.”

The truth is that today there are some great things that can be done. We have medications that can be given to sometimes reverse a stroke and surgeries that can be done to repair one.

Today, I want you to start thinking of your blood vessels to your brain as plumbing. When you have a stroke, it is either a clogged pipe (87% of cases) or a burst pipe (13%).

Either way, you need a plumber, which is why you should never “redneck it” to the hospital. Instead of taking your loved one yourself, call 911.

Expertly trained EMS personnel will evaluate your loved one and then notify the “plumbing crew” that they need to be ready to take care of your emergency. One of the first things that they will do at the hospital is take you for a special X-ray of your brain, called a CT scan. This allows the team to quickly learn if your pipe is burst or clogged so that we can take the next steps to best care for you. When you travel to the hospital on your own, you delay your care, as the team did not know to best prepare for your arrival.

It’s important that we get the word out in our community to call 911 when a stroke is suspected, because currently, only about 3-6% of people make it to the hospital in time to get the testing and treatments that could potentially reverse or repair the stroke.

It is not because health care isn’t ready. It is because often people think there’s no treatment or cure for stroke. And even if it is too late or not safe to get the treatments right away, we know how to aggressively manage stroke rehab to give a better chance of recovery long term.

Prevention is the key to avoiding stroke, so things you can do to reduce the risk of having a stroke are to make healthy food choices, move more and stop smoking. Getting annual physical checkups to monitor for your risk of diabetes and high blood pressure is also extremely important.

Now that you know why it is important to call 911, I want to leave you with the signs and symptoms of stroke. Think BE FAST. Balance loss, Eyesight loss, Facial drooping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulty, Time to call 911.

Melissa Overton, RN, BSN is the owner of MedicalTraining. me, a local training facility that teaches First Aid, CPR AED and other lifesaving classes for the American Heart Association, ASHI and the American Red Cross. She can be reached at melissa@medicaltraining.me.