Early Stroke Identification - STR Method
The faster you recognize the signs of a stroke the greater your ability to save a life and lessen the damage from a stroke.
Learning the information in this article will help you recognize a stroke so that you can take quick action to counter its effect. If properly treated within a short period of time, it's amazing how modern medicine has progressed in helping people recover from the effects of a stroke. The key is STR and getting treatment within 3 hours.
Two Stories – Two Different Outcomes!
Story #1: During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall. She assured everyone that she was fine. People offered to call the paramedics but she declined. She told everyone that she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. After getting cleaned up, she got a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening. Ingrid's husband called later to tell everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital. At 6 pm Ingrid passed away. She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had the people at the party known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would still be with us today.
Story #2: This story comes from the Associated Press and tells how two Cincinnati women are grateful to their fast acting beauticians. One stylist noticed that a woman's speech had become slurred during the appointment so she called 911. Another woman called her hairdresser several weeks after having been to the salon. She described the symptoms she was having. According to Dr. Dawn Kleindorfer, a University of Cincinnati neurologist, "The beautician recognized it as signs of a stroke, called 911, walked to the woman's apartment and waited with her until an ambulance arrived." Both women survived their strokes.
How Do You Recognize The Signs of a Stroke?
Learning these symptoms and knowing what to do when they occur could save your life or the life of someone else. These are the most common signs of a stroke or stroke symptoms:
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Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg especially if it occurs on one side of the body.
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Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding.
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Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
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Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination.
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Sudden severe headache with no known cause.
If you have or see anyone who has these symptoms, then call the hospital or doctor immediately. Time is critical in decreasing the effects of a stroke.
Remember S–T–R!
Taking the time to learn and remember these 3 simple steps could save a person's life:
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S – SMILE! Ask the individual to smile.
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T – TALK! Ask the person to talk or speak a simple sentence coherently. (i.e. It is sunny out today.)
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R – RAISE! Ask the person to raise both arms together.
If they fail any one of these 3 simple steps, then call the hospital.
A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can significantly reverse the effects of a stroke. That's because of a clot-busting medicine called tPA. It must be given within three hours of the start of symptoms for it to do any good. Unfortunately, fewer than 5% of stroke sufferers wind up getting this medicine.
What Are The First 3 Letters In STROKE?
S–T–R!
What Do They Represent?
SMILE, TALK, RAISE!
A cardiologist says that if everyone who reads this article would pass it on to 10 people you can bet that at least one life will be saved. I've passed this one to you and would ask that you pass this on to ten others.
Remember, SMILE, TALK, RAISE or S–T–R is a simple way to help determine if a person has suffered a stroke and needs immediate medical attention. Once the stroke symptoms occur the clock starts ticking. Your quick response could be the difference between life or death, permanent disability or significant recovery.
The simple three- item examination is known as the Cincinnati Prehospital Stroke Scale (CPSS) and has been successfully used by health care professionals in stroke screening. The focus of the research was to see if the CPSS could be used by the general public. The study recruited stroke survivors who still had some symptoms. They then asked 100 non-patient visitors to the University of North Carolina Hospital emergency room to use the CPSS in telephone script form. The researchers concluded that bystanders correctly administered the CPSS 96 percent of the time.
The conclusion? You improve the chances 19 times out of 20, by remembering and using this short -- smile, talk, raise arms -- test. And get help over any uncertain results.
Neither the Heart Association nor its affiliate, the American Stroke Association, has endorsed the three-pronged assessment, but that doesn't mean they discredit the findings, explained Laura Hague, marketing director for the Heart Association in Indianapolis.
"It may be good and it may make sense, but the AHA, because we're a research-based organization, we really do need to have substantial studies to be able to have our name with that." The very fact that you feel the need to test someone for signs of stroke may be enough reason to call the hospital, says Edward Sloan, an emergency room physician and president of the Foundation for the Education and Research in Neurological Emerencies.
"That situation sugests that something has occurred which is out of the ordinary, not normal, and or needs evalution by a medical professional. In that setting the best thing to do is to access emergency care as quickly as possible.
Extensive and reliable information about preventing, detecting and treating stroke can be found at the American Stroke Association's web site
Original Sources:
http://www.aging-no-more.com/signs-of-a-stroke.html
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2006/aug/09/smile-talk-raise/?printer=1/
http://www.draftresource.com/stroke.html
http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/stroke.shtml
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