Would you recognise the symptoms?

[Jemisa]

I will continue to forward this every time it comes around!

STROKE IDENTIFICATION:

During a BBQ, a woman stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call an ambulance) she said she had 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, Jane went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening

Jane's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital -
(at 6:00 pm Jane passed away.) She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Jane would be with us today.
It only takes a minute to read this...
RECOGNIZING A STROKE
. 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 *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently)
R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call 999 immediately and describe the symptoms to the telephonist..

NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue...if the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke..

[Answerprancer]

When my Dad had his, the GP performed a plantar reflex test - which proved positive.
It's detailed here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.n...gi?book=cm&part=A2407

[razza]

My wife can I.D. one I got up for work at 5am one morning,after making a cup of tea I felt a bit weird,I woke the wife up and asked her if she could see anything wrong with me,from a just awoke position she looked at me and said you have had a stroke,called the ambulance and with prompt attention I was fully recovered in 3 months.My son also saved his partners mum having the same knowledge.

[Francis Asis]

But from what you say Jane was speaking coherently and eating and enjoying herself. She wasn't showing any of the symptoms you mentioned so this would have been of no use to the people there. Or am I missing something?

[Sqad]

Jemsa...those signs and symptoms that you describe are for a significant stroke, which would be obvious to anybody present.

The case history that you describe is certainly not typical of a stroke.

[razza]

Sqad, wrong,mine was classed as a minor stroke and the wife saw the symptons.

[Sqad]

Minor, significant....if the signs that are described above are present, then a major cerebral artery is at fault, either bleeding or blocked.

If i have got the story correct, she being at the BBQ in the afternoon, tripped and was dead at 6pm that same day....then nothing or nobody could have saved her.
If i have the sequence of events wrong, then I aplopgise.

[Sqad]

A stroke is not a medical diagnosis and is used to simplify a situation that has many causes.

[marie26]

I agree with Sqad. Unfortunately, this lady had a catastrophic cerebral event, and the mortality rate of these events is high.

[boxtops]

My sister had two TIAs, the first happened when she was doing yoga and she thought she's strained something - the second time, she'd just given her son a lift and she couldn't feel her leg so couldn't drive home. Straight to hospital, battery of tests - a year later she s fine but on permanent warfarin.

My friend's daughter in her 20s had a spinal stroke, I'd never heard of it but she lost all feeling from waist down, with no warning. She's now fully recovered thank goodness, but I'd never heard of the condition.

Best alerted, so easy to miss these tell tale clues. Life can be very precarious, it's a good reminder - thanks jem.

[Jemisa]

This was sent to me as an email and not the first time.
This I presume was a hypothetical situation drawing our attention to what 'could' happen. and how to deal with it if you came accross something like it.
I am not a medical person so cannot pull it to pieces to correct all details.
All I know is it makes people aware, and if it has done that then indeed the message has come accross & perhaps too a life can be saved.

jem

[Matheous-2]

Well spoken Jemisa....I heard a prog on BBC Radio4 about this and remember a consultant stating that if a potential patient is brought to an A&E within an hour of these symptoms they have the means now to save that patient and prevent damage....