Many stroke victims don’t identify symptoms
Elderly patients who were diagnosed with a stroke in a hospital emergency room, including many who had had a stroke previously, still didn‘t identify their symptoms as stroke-related and delayed seeking medical care for as long as eight days, according to a study by the American College of Emergency Physicians.
“Despite numerous efforts to educate the public about stroke symptoms, the people most likely to suffer stroke – the elderly – still don‘t recognize this ‘ killer ‘ even when it is happening to them,” said researcher Dr. Latha Stead of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. “Half of the patients we studied had even had a stroke previously and they still did not make the connection between the two events. We need to do a better job of educating people that stroke is a medical emergency and that they need to get to the emergency room.”
Researchers studied 344 stroke patients in hospitals, all age 65 and older.
The most -frequent stroke symptoms are: weakness, an inability to speak or slurred speech, mental confusion, dizziness, numbness or tingling in an arm, or a facial droop. Even some of the patients who knew their symptoms suggested stroke still didn‘t come to the emergency department right away, according to the study.
“Some of the reasons are really heartbreaking: patients were afraid to come to the emergency department alone because they feared dying at the hospital alone; and others didn’t want to inconvenience a friend or family member by asking to go to the hospital,” said Stead. “In fact, you are less likely to die if you get to the ER as soon as possible. And the inconvenience you might cause a family member is nothing compared to the inconvenience of lasting stroke damage!”
Annually in the United States, 700,000 people suffer a stroke, with 150,000 of those dying .
“The vast majority of the studied patients were independent in their daily activities,” said Dr. Stead. “With early medical intervention and good care, they have a much better chance of keeping it that way even after stroke!”
-Jim Killackey, medical writer
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment