Get Help FAST for Stroke
Johns Hopkins Health Alerts
Do you know the first thing you should do if you suspect someone (or you) is having a stroke? The answer is to call 911, but that message clearly never reached at least one-third of people who had a stroke between 2003 and 2010.
In a study published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes (Vol. 6, p. 262) researchers looked at how more than 200,000 stroke patients arrived at emergency rooms during those years. They found that nearly 37 percent of these stroke patients didn't call for emergency medical services (EMS) help. Instead, they used other modes of transportation.
Precious time needed to administer life-saving treatment is lost when you drive a stroke patient to the emergency room instead of calling for an ambulance. An ambulance carries drugs and equipment that paramedics can immediately use on the stroke victim en route to the hospital. What's more, EMS will be sure to take the patient to a hospital that has advanced stroke care.
Delayed treatment for an ischemic stroke, the most common kind of stroke, means a patient may not receive clot-busting drugs that must be administered within three hours of symptom onset to improve the chances of recovery. You can help minimize the effects of a stroke by learning how to spot the symptoms of stroke and reacting quickly.
Remember the acronym F.A.S.T.:
Face drooping
Arm weakness
Speech difficulty
Time to call 911
Johns Hopkins Health Alerts
Do you know the first thing you should do if you suspect someone (or you) is having a stroke? The answer is to call 911, but that message clearly never reached at least one-third of people who had a stroke between 2003 and 2010.
In a study published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes (Vol. 6, p. 262) researchers looked at how more than 200,000 stroke patients arrived at emergency rooms during those years. They found that nearly 37 percent of these stroke patients didn't call for emergency medical services (EMS) help. Instead, they used other modes of transportation.
Precious time needed to administer life-saving treatment is lost when you drive a stroke patient to the emergency room instead of calling for an ambulance. An ambulance carries drugs and equipment that paramedics can immediately use on the stroke victim en route to the hospital. What's more, EMS will be sure to take the patient to a hospital that has advanced stroke care.
Delayed treatment for an ischemic stroke, the most common kind of stroke, means a patient may not receive clot-busting drugs that must be administered within three hours of symptom onset to improve the chances of recovery. You can help minimize the effects of a stroke by learning how to spot the symptoms of stroke and reacting quickly.
Remember the acronym F.A.S.T.:
Face drooping
Arm weakness
Speech difficulty
Time to call 911