What To Do If Having A Stroke Alone?

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

So, no question/request too big or small 😎

❝Thank you for the video about what to do if you have a heart attack alone, what about what to do if you have a stroke alone?❞

(for anyone who missed that video, here it is)

That’s a good question, especially as stroke risk is rising in the industrialized world in general, and the US in particular.

However, let’s start with the caveat that if you are having a stroke, there’s a good chance you will forget what we are about to say, what with the immediate effects it has on the brain. That said…

The general advice when it comes to looking after someone else who is experiencing a stroke, is, “don’t”.

In other words, call emergency services, and don’t do anything else, e.g:

• don’t give them anything to eat or drink
• don’t give them any medications
• don’t let them go to sleep
• don’t let them talk you out of calling emergency services
• don’t let them drive themselves to hospital
• don’t drive them to hospital yourself either*

*This is for two reasons:

1. an ambulance crew has skills and resources that you don’t, and can begin treatment en-route, and also,
2. not all hospitals have appropriate resources to treat stroke, so the ambulance crew will know to drive to one that does, instead of driving to a random hospital and hoping for the best

So, flipping this for if it’s you having the stroke, and you’re cognizant enough to remember this:

• do call an ambulance; stay on the line and don’t do anything else unless instructed by the emergency services.

In order to do that, of course it’s important to recognize the symptoms; you probably know these but just in case, the mnemonic is “FAST”:

• Face: is there weakness on one side of their face?
• Arms: if they raise both arms, does one drift downwards?
• Speech: if they speak, is their speech slurred or otherwise unusual?
• Time: to call emergency services

It’s great to not get caught out by surprise, so you might also want to check out:

6 Signs Of Stroke (One Month In Advance)

Take care!