This message is so important we need to “be fast” and learn about it as soon as possible.
Among all brain and neurological conditions, stroke patients need high quality medical care as quickly as possible so increasing awareness of the symptoms can save lives.
Be:Fast is an acronym used to help recognize and enhance rapid response when a person is having a stroke.
When you suspect someone has a stroke, you have to “be fast” to get adequate medical care immediately.
Be:Fast stands for Balance loss, Eyesight changes, Facial drooping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulties and Time to seek emergency help.
B for Balance: The person losses balance, feel dizzy and may fall.
E for Eyesight: The eyesight changes and vision becomes blurred and the eyes may seem to be turning.
F for Face: One half of the face becomes weak and disfigured.
A for Arm: One of the arms becomes weak and unable to move properly.
S for Speech: The person suddenly finds it difficult to talk and the speech becomes slurry.
T for Time: If you notice one or more of these signs, please don’t waste time. Time is brain! Please call an ambulance immediately or quickly take the person to the nearest hospital or clinic.
Symptoms occur suddenly and can include headache, confusion and difficulty moving the leg especially on one side of the body.
Be Fast with a Stroke
Stroke represents a severe medical condition that causes stroke survivors to suffer from long-term and even lifelong disability.
A stroke is caused by a sudden interruption of cerebral blood supply to a specific region of the brain, resulting in regional brain tissue death. Once a stroke occurs, brain tissue that is located inside and outside the infarct/lesion area undergoes significant changes over time.
We all need to encourage more people to learn to recognize these signs of stroke and be fast.
People can quickly drive the patient to the nearest hospital or clinic for medical attention.
Preferably, people should be aware of available ambulance services and medical response services who have staff trained to quickly identify signs of a stroke and are able to send the appropriate emergency medical response ambulance.
Most emergency response teams are trained to evaluate the patient quickly, notify the hospital, and transport the patient as quickly as possible to the hospital.
In most cases, emergency response systems work with hospitals that are prepared to provide timely treatment in order to quickly resolve the symptoms.
Here is a brief example of how these processes should work:
A patient is noticed to have any signs of stroke like loss of balance, difficulty seeing, drooping face, weakening arms and slurring speech and inability to find words to speak properly.
A medical response team is called immediately to bring an ambulance. Within about 10-15 minutes, the ambulance arrives with emergency medical team to evaluate and transport the patient.
The emergency medical team notifies the appropriate hospital to alert the hospital stroke team to be ready to receive the patient.
Within 10-20 minutes the patient is transported to the hospital.
At the hospital, the patient is examined and receives scans to confirm the stroke.
About 10-20 minutes later, the patient is given medication like tPA or combination of other therapies to dissolve the blood clot or reduce bleeding as appropriate depending on the type of stroke
Additionally, the patient may quickly be taken to the interventional radiology and neurosurgery clinic where the neurosurgeon can perform appropriate surgery.
Few hours later, the patient should be up in the recovery room, fully alert and without any neurological deficits and could speak and other signs like facial drooping now resolved.
Currently, we are working with partners at Medneed to make some of these processes and procedures readily accessible to more people who may need medical attention at any time.
Depending on the level of the health challenges and rate of recovery, patients may require various forms of medical care to help accelerate recovery.
Please feel free to reach out to us for more support even if you have other options for all stroke cases.
Medneed provides information and support to make it easier for patients to get some of the medical care they need. See How It Works page.
Also follow our updates on stroke recovery and brain care for better physical and mental health outcomes.
Please kindly consider joining us if you could possibly help in any way and feel free to refer other people we could work with.
