wall 17 January 2010
My sister in law ran into a wall in my back garden two years ago on Christmas Day – trust me it seemed to make even less sense at the time. ANYhow, pissed as we all were (and yes, therein lies the clue to the whole ‘running’ thing) I was mindful of her brain being a bit too jigged about. My Dad died of a stroke (as many regulars know) and it’s always good to check those who take a turn, for whatever reason, and it can really make a difference. The sis in law thought I was mad but I am glad I asked her to
1/ smile
2/ make a coherent sentence (I asked her quite specifically where she was) and my 3/ was counting backwards in 7s which is actually difficult and something I can’t do with ease (she’d lost interest by then and was objecting to the amount of Milton I was washing her wounds with).
Now, it should be said that I was doing the stroke checks on her and maybe they weren’t necessary for that situation, but everyone really should know them.
The third thing to do, in fact, is to get the person to raise both arms at the same time. And there is now a fourth (thank you Mandy for alerting me) which is to get the person to stick out their tongue – if it looks in any way lopsided you may have a stroke victim on your hands and the sooner they are dealt with the more chance there is that it can be dealt with successfully/reversed even.
There endeth the (medical) lesson…
For what it’s worth, my Dad got swift attention but his was a seismic stroke that I don’t think could ever have been rectified…but not all are and that’s why we must be prepared!
