Immediate Stroke Care Elizabethtown, KY
Urgency in Treating Stroke Health Talk Transcript:
Vince Syers, MD Emergency Medicine
Baptist Health Hardin
Vince Syers, MD:
The majority of strokes are due to a blood clot in a blood vessel going to the brain. This blood clot can cause a blockage, and this will prevent blood flow, oxygen and nutrients from reaching a certain area of the brain, causing brain cells to die.
The symptoms of a stroke are typically a sudden onset of loss of function, sometimes on one side of the body. This can include one side of the face, weakness or numbness in the face, arm or leg, possibly change in vision. Sometimes you'll have difficulty speaking, including slurred or mumbling speech, or even difficulty finding the words to speak. You may have dizziness or sudden loss of balance.
If you suspect yourself or one of your family members is having a stroke, you should call 911 immediately to seek care for a stroke. EMS can evaluate you and they will take you to a hospital that has stroke center capabilities.
Here at Baptist Health Hardin, we're a primary stroke center. We can help manage your symptoms of a stroke and also have you seen by a neurologist, which is a doctor who specializes in stroke.
If you're able to get to the emergency department quickly within the first few hours of your stroke, we can give you the medication called TPA and dissolve the blood clot rapidly. This can greatly improve or even reverse your symptoms completely. I've seen patients who come in unable to move their arm or leg and, within an hour after getting IV TPA medication, they're suddenly moving their arm and leg again and speaking close to normal.
