Strokes...

Got this in an e-mail sent by my dad today... he got it from a friend from work, who got it from someone at the Superintendent's office. It had obviously been forwarded many times before that as well.

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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.

It only takes a minute to read this-

Recognizing a Stroke

----- 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 an getting to the patient within 3 hours which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE

Thank God for the sense to remember the "3" steps. Read and Learn!

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify.

Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer 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:

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 the dispatcher.

After discovering that a group of non-medical volunteers could 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 and treatment of the stroke and prevent brain damage. 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.

BE A FRIEND AND SHARE THIS ARTICLE WITH AS MANY FRIENDS AS POSSIBLE, you could save their lives.

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Funnily enough, I can find no reference to this on the web other than copies of this e-mail posted on blogs and even a Navy Seal website. I suspect, while this may be sent with the best of intentions, that it is actually untrue. That a doctor... any doctor... would claim what the "doctor" in this e-mail claims is beyond all reason and isn't something that any doctor *would* claim. Also, I had a professor... my favorite professor... Roy Van Neste (PhD). He said that he had had, as of the Spring of 2004, no less than 16 strokes scattered throughout his life (that he knew of and all of them small) and that his doctors had no idea why he was still alive. He suffered no apparent ill effects from them and doctors could not determine the cause, though they were sure that they were strokes and that in tests brain abnormalities due to the strokes were detected. For many of them, he said he received no treatment whatsoever. He said that he'd even had them in classes before and went right on with his work for the rest of the day. (On top of the strokes, he was also told at age 19 that, due to a genetic heart condition, he would not live to see 25 and could not continue to work his family farm... So he quit working the family farm and went to college, got a PhD and took a job at USF where he taught until he retired to Boone, NC at the age of 67 in 2004 with his (according to his stories) brazen, at one time red-headed, Irish-American wife.) So while these symptoms may show up in some victims of minor strokes, they do not by any means show up in all, and with some strokes, symptoms may not present themselves for hours or possibly even days. Even in the narrative in this e-mail, the woman apparently was speaking just fine, was able to carry on for the rest of the evening as if nothing had happened... Right there, the theory which is afterward presented is blown out of the water! So if you get this e-mail, take it with a grain of salt.

And if any of that post was worded oddly... Sorry, I've been reading early Medieval Church doctrines, Imperial letters, and monastic Rules all day, while watching Shakespearean movies. It's beginning to effect my grasp of the modern English language...