In the United States, someone has a stroke every 40 seconds. Comanche County Memorial Hospital recently held a stroke screening so people could know their risks.
“We have an EKG that we’re checking for atrial fibrillation here,” said Rachel Talley, Stroke Clinical Coordinator at CCMH. “We’re doing blood pressure. There’s an option to draw labs to check for diabetes, hemoglobin A1C, and a lipid panel to check the cholesterol.”
Talley said stroke symptoms can happen for a variety of reasons, but a stroke would be the worst thing that could be happening. She says it’s important to go to an ER if you’re experiencing symptoms to either rule in or rule out a stroke.
An easy way to remember the symptoms is the acronym B.E. F.A.S.T.
B – stands for Balance.
E – is for Eyes.
F – stands for Facial droop on one side.
A – is for Arm weakness on one side.
S – is Speech difficulty.
T – is for Time to call 911.
Talley said the saying is: time is brain, so they have to act quickly when they have someone come in presenting stroke symptoms.
“We have to act fast to either provide a Thrombolytic medication for a certain type of stroke called an ischemic stroke, which is a blood clot in the brain, and the other type of stroke, which may be a hemorrhagic stroke or bleeding into the brain,” she said. “So we have to do rapid CT imaging to see what’s going on in the brain.”
Talley said eating healthy, exercising daily, and taking your medicines as prescribed can help reduce your stroke risk. If you’re curious about your stroke risks, schedule an appointment with your primary care provider so you can talk with them about it.
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