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posted by Ronald on Dec 31

I received an interesting e-mail yesterday.  The information was later confirmed by a close friend of mine who is an Emergency Medical Technician for a local fire and ambulance squad.  The information was on noticing the early signs of a stroke. 

Apparently, if a stroke is treated within the first three hours (similar to the golden hour after a heart attack) most if not all the adverse effects of the stroke can be reversed. 

Maybe like you, I found this to be pretty remarkable considering that many people go through long rehabilitation for speech, to learn to walk or talk, to eat.  Three hours.  Seems like a lot of time but it turns out that it’s not.  The reason is that many people ignore the headache, the blurred vision, the slurring of speech for ‘just not feeling right.’  Rather than realizing it could be a stroke. 

Well here is a simple acronym to remember if you ever thought someone might have had a stroke.  Keep in mind that no matter what, you should always consult your doctor.  This is informational only and not meant to diagnose!  The acronym is:

S - T - R

S - ask the person to SMILE

T - ask the person to TALK - a simple sentence like ‘My name is Nancy and I like the color Blue.’

R - ask the person to RAISE both arms

If the person cannot do any ONE of these three then you should call 911 immediately and explain the symptoms to the dispatcher. 

There is a new test that has been added.  It was the reason I got the e-mail in the first place.  The new test is:

Ask the person to STICK THEIR TONGUE OUT.

If they can’t, or it is crooked or slumps to one side or the other….again call 911 immediately and tell the dispatcher the symptoms.

I learned that the EMT’s use this test whenever called for a possible stroke or heart attack.  It’s called the Cincinnati Stroke Scale (not sure why but the name implies either the city of Cincinnati or maybe someone called Cincinatti - I’ll leave it to those Internet researchers to find out why!).

 So the next time someone stumbles, doesn’t respond quite right, looks as if they are favoring one side of their body, etc. have them take this simple S-T-R (SMILE-TALK-RAISE THE ARMS) to check for a stroke.  And remember THREE hours can make a world of difference in stroke recovery.

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