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The moment a person experiences a stroke they are fighting between life and death. It’s an extremely critical situation for the victim and it’s crucial that they get professional medical help within a few hours or it can lead to death. And around 795, 000 Americans have a stroke every year hence every person should educate themselves with the basic signs through which they can identify that a person might be suffering from stroke. 

Diagnosis

It’s a simple formula; just look for the FAST symptoms:

• Face droops from one side
• Arms become numb and weak
• Speech is slurred/unclear
• Time to call for help!

The patient should be taken immediately to the hospital or within 3-4 hours after the stroke so that they can be treated accordingly.

Treatment 

For Ischemic stroke: the doctor focuses more on restoring your blood flow that is restrained due to blocked/narrowed arteries. They may also use the help of drugs or blood-thinners like aspirin or even inject some tissue plasminogen activator (TPA). 

This serum is most effective in dissolving blood clots if given within 4-5 hours of seeing stroke symptoms and is one of the primary course of action in case of emergency. However, another method also includes inserting a catheter into a wider blood vessel in the brain and pull out the clot manually, TPA may also injected to assist the process. If the vessel has chances of collapsing again then the doctor also insert stents. 

However, the last resort or the only option after a major ischemic attack the doctors may perform a surgery to hopefully remove the blood clots with either a catheter or if it’s a large clot then it may also lead to opening up an artery with the blockage.

For hemorrhagic stroke: the treatment is quite the opposite since blood vessels rupture and leak and the aim is to clot the blood. 

Some methods that doctors use can be:

• Coiling: this procedure concentrates on reducing bleeding hence a coil-like structure is inserted through a long tube at the site of hemorrhage. This stops blood flow.
• Clamping: if your CT or MRI scans show a possible aneurysm which is not ruptured yet or has stopped bleeding then the doctor may use a tiny clamp to avoid any blood loss.
• Medications: the best way is to take drugs that will lower the blood pressure hence will help reduce seizures and blood vessel constriction.
• Surgery: it is obviously the last step when both clamping and coiling fails to stop the bleeding and an aneurysm gets ruptured. The surgery is also known as a craniotomy which focuses on relieving the brain of some pressure caused by a serious stroke.

Even if any of the above methods prove to be successful, the side effects of all the scans and medications will always leave a mark. The stroke itself can be quite traumatizing and with higher intensity a person can even sustain a brain injury. So it’s a crucial part of recovery to visit a rehabilitation center or join a support to not only recover physically but also cope up mentally and emotionally so that you can resume your everyday activities sooner!