Every year, 50,000 Canadians have something in common with Sharon Stone, Elizabeth Taylor and host of other Hollywood stars: they have all suffered a stroke. Health issues don’t discriminate the way pay cheques do, I guess. We are all vulnerable and need to be aware.
The warning signs of a stroke can include sudden changes in speech, vision and balance. If you have any of these symptoms, call 9-1-1 right away. As the saying goes, time is brain, and clot-busting drugs only work if given in the first 3.5 hours of a stroke. Right now, only about one third of people are hitting that critical deadline.
To make the point, Sunnybrook actually launched a study putting a giant clock on a stroke patient’s bed. Call it a visual reminder that time matters! We also just opened a very cool new stroke unit that caters to patients in a way other hospitals don’t: putting everyone from speech experts to physiotherapists on one dedicated floor. Evidence shows this model means fewer deaths, less time in hospital and better quality of life.
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| The grand opening of Sunnybrook’s new Stroke Unit |
One of our doctors put it this way: for every 10 people who have a stroke, 2 will die, 6 will have some level of disability and only 2 will make a full recovery. And one of the best ways to make it into the latter category is by being cared for on this type of stroke unit.
If you need more information on stroke risk factors and symptoms, The Heart and Stroke Foundation is a great resource. Being stroke month, they have a clever online campaign right now, asking if people have had the “S-talk” yet. You can actually send an electronic card to a loved one decked out with this cheeky double entendre. There is also a risk assessment tool available that only takes a few minutes to complete.
Yes, it’s hard to make a topic like stroke popular, so why not get people’s attention by dropping a few famous names or by using some gentle sexual suggestion? Hopefully it’s helped get you to the end of this blog. And now you know more!
