Pro First Aid

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Now let's take a look at strokes.

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Strokes differentiate from heart attacks because

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the blockage or the injury is being caused in the brain, not in the heart.

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But the risk factors and the controllable risk factors are similar.

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So, when we look at stroke, and we look at the cause of a stroke,

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it is similar to heart attacks in that

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it is an obstruction in a blood vessel

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causing damage to the brain

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except for when strokes are caused from bleeding in the brain.

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Which can be caused from a bleb

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or some rupture of a vessel in the brain

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and causes the stroke that way.

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That's primarily why we're not going to treat strokes

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the same way as we treat a heart attack.

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We don't give anything by mouth.

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We're not going to give them an aspirin when it has to deal with strokes.

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Now, how do we recognize that it's a stroke?

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Strokes are classically going to show symptoms of one-sided weakness

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or paralysis completely.

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Their face on that same affected side tends to droop

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because they can't control the muscles in that side of the face.

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Their eye may not blink with the other eye.

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They may not be able to swallow,

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and saliva might actually kind of drool from one side of the mouth.

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Lighter forms of the symptoms:

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they may stumble a lot,

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they may have slurred speech,

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they may not be able to speak at all,

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or they may not make sense when they speak.

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But one thing to remember when treating a stroke patient,

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is that in many cases, they understand us perfectly.

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So we would be doing them a horrible disservice

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by talking to them as if they can't understand what's going on

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or that they can't understand us

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when the whole time they really can,

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they simply can't articulate it back to us.

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So, when we talk about strokes,

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regardless of what the cause is,

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the treatment is always going to be the same:

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recognize the stroke symptoms,

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then activate the emergency medical services,

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watch the person who is having the stroke

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to see if they need to have us help control their airway, breathing, or circulation,

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and then make sure we get them to the emergency medical services

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or to the hospital as fast as possible

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so that we can get them treated and hopefully begin the rehabilitation process

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so they can have a great quality of life again.