“Golden period”: Importance of time in the management of stroke

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”
― Charles Darwin, The Life & Letters of Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin is absolutely right when he explained how important the value of time is! This makes even more sense for the patients suffering from stroke.
When it comes to successfully minimizing physical and subsequent mental and emotional damage caused by stroke, timing is everything, yet patients and their loved ones experiencing signs of stroke may wait too long before calling for help. Even worse is rushing to a hospital not equipped with immediate care to be given for stroke patients. Time lost is brain lost!

Narrowing of the blood vessel, rupturing of blood vessel or blood clot in blood vessel can cause brain attack or paralysis. Without oxygen and energy brain cannot function. If blood supply to brain is stopped for more than 3-6 hours, death of the brain cells occurs. To avoid the same it is very important to keep regular and uninterrupted blood supply to brain. If brain cells die it causes that portion of the brain to swell and if swelling progresses beyond particular point it causes danger to the life of a person.

MRI and scanning helps in diagnosis and treatment. These investigations help to differentiate different types of stroke, assess the severity. Once the diagnosis is made its easy to give appropriate treatment.

It’s unfortunate that many patients don’t reach hospital in time after paralysis, because of which immediate care cannot be given them.

Symptoms of paralysis:

1. Sudden loss of power or heaviness in one side of the body
2. Numbness in one side of the body
3. Loss of speech
4. Diminished or complete loss of vision

If any of these symptoms is experienced please do not waste even a second and rush to the nearest hospital which is well equipped with facilities for immediate stroke care management.

Hospitals which specialize in Stroke care have a team which is trained to act fast and follow a well defined Stroke Protocol, which minimizes the time to start effective treatment.