PEORIA -- Here are three fast ways to determine whether someone is having a stroke:
* S -- Ask the individual to SMILE
* T -- Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK (coherently) A SIMPLE SENTENCE (E.g. "It is sunny out today.")
* R -- Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS
If he or she has trouble with any one of these tasks, call 911 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
And to remember these three questions, try very hard to remember the letters STR, and remember that they stand for Smile, Talk, Raise. Maybe remember them as the first three letters of the word “stroke.”
Stroke kills and disables thousands of people yearly. Given the current political and economic situations, stroke may strike even more.
And many people HATE to go to a hospital needlessly. The cost, the hassle, the threat of infection, all deter hospital visits, even for the insured.
But a stroke can kill or disable. Here's the complete story from AlterNet.
-- Elaine Hopkins
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