It’s World Stroke Day: Here’s how to identify and prevent a stroke
Monday October 29 is World Stroke Day. According to the World Stroke Organization, 80 million people have had a stroke worldwide and 50 million stroke survivors live with some form of permanent disability.
News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2’s Madison Weil sat down with the Neuro and Cardiology teams at Desert Regional Medical Center, who work with local stroke patients often. They say if you catch the signs of a stroke early enough, you can prevent serious neurological damage.
“The typical signs that one would expect is usually a sudden onset of numbness or weakness on one side of the face…on the opposite side of the body…and sudden loss of vision or impairment of vision usually on one side, and slurred speech,” said Dr. Michael Bagheri, an Interventional Cardiologist at Desert Regional Medical Center.
Some patients mistake stroke symptoms for something less serious, or wait hours before calling 911. But doctors say every minute that passes from the onset of these symptoms is critical.
“This is why we don’t want people to say, ‘Well let me go back to bed — it’ll go away, or have a spouse drive me in, or I’ll call my son and he’s 30 minutes away but he’ll bring me to the hospital…’ You need to call 911 and get there right away,” said Dr. Thomas Clark, Stroke Medical Director at Desert Regional Medical Center.
A stroke can be caused by a blood clot that originates in the heart, brain or elsewhere. And if caught early, the hospital can administer a drug that breaks down that clot before it causes serious damage.
“We do these treatments and we’ve treated a lot of people and we’ve had a lot of good results,” said Dr. Clark.
It’s also important to distinguish the difference between stroke symptoms and heart attack symptoms: “For the heart attack…the symptoms could vary a little more. The classic symptoms or typical symptoms would be a pressure-like heaviness in the chest usually on the left side of the chest right where the heart is,” said Dr. Bagheri.
With a heart attack, patients often describe the pain as “an elephant sitting on their chest” and might also have shortness of breath, nausea, increased heart rate and sharp pains that could span from the jaw and through the arms.
With any of these symptoms, doctors say it’s best to get checked.
Watch the full story at 6pm on News Channel 3 and 11pm on CBS Local 2.
Download the KESQ & CBS Local 2 app on iTunes or Google Play for up-to-the-minute breaking news alerts & more
More: I-Team and Stands for You investigations
Find us on Facebook: KESQ News Channel 3 & CBS Local 2
Follow us on Twitter for breaking news updates: @KESQ & @Local2
We’re on Instagram! @KESQ_News_Channel_3 & @CBSLocal2
Noticias en español: Telemundo 15
