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ronniexpunani:

STROKE: Remember The 1st Three Letters… S.T..R …
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.

STROKE IDENTIFICATION:
During a party, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine and just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. (they offered to call ambulance)

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 party . 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…

STROKE IDENTIFICATION:

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

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 * = TALK. Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (eg ‘It is sunny out today’).
R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS .

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call the ambulance and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

NOTE : Another ‘sign’ of a stroke is
1. Ask the person to ‘stick’ out their tongue.
2. If the tongue is ‘crooked’, if it goes to one side or the other that is also an indication of a stroke.

A prominent 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.

And it could be your own.

Just adding a few more things to an already good post:

While the symptoms described here are the most frequent, other symptoms may also happen. Strong, sudden and/or particularly persistent headaches are very common. Less common is the following situation: a former patient of mine first experienced a loss of control of his bladder (meaning he urinated himself) when he had his stroke, and only later did he experience difficulty speaking, followed by a gradual— and general— weakening of his muscles.

Another (rather frequent) symptom is a loss of balance and difficulty to maintain a certain posture, particularly while standing up.

Ultimately, the most common sign of a stroke is asymmetry, like what the original post has implied. When you ask a person to raise their arms or to stick out their tongue, you are looking out for asymmetry: whether or not an arm raises a lot more than the other, or whether or not the tongue is crooked to a side. The same principle applies to when you ask the person to smile: you are basically searching for an asymmetry of their facial muscles (the smile can be lopsided— like it only happens in one half of the face—, one of the eyes may not open or close as much as the other, and so on).

Depending on where the blood clot is placed (or where the haemorrhage happens, because strokes can happen due to blood clots or haemorrhages), different areas of the brain can be affected, which in turn means completely different consequences which can go from severe personality changes (frontal lobe) to blindness/vision loss (occipital lobe), among many other things.

We can only hope that posts like these help to spread the word and raise awareness about such a serious (and rather frequent) health problem. Please do not forget to reblog, and if you want to know more, a quick google/wiki search will tell you most things you need to know. Just remember: you can save a life by recognizing these symptoms in time, be it a friend, a family member, a complete stranger, or even yourself.