Regional health units are taking steps to improve stroke-related care in Leeds-Grenville and continuing efforts to make Brockville General Hospital a centre of concentrated excellence, said Mayor David Henderson, himself a victim of strokes.
A recent report by the Heart and Stroke Foundation reveals that although stroke rates have declined in the last 60 years, treatment will soon be challenged by an aging population and an increase in the number of younger stroke victims.
With an estimated 50,000 strokes every year - or one every 10 minutes in Canada - health-care specialists in Brockville may be asking: Are we adequately prepared?
As honorary chairman of the local Heart and Stroke Foundation - with an added history of personal health complications - Henderson is an advocate for stroke awareness and grassroots programs in the city aimed at preventing problems before they occur.
These problems are mostly related to healthy active lifestyles, and that means we in the community have to facilitate that, Henderson said.
It means we have to work on our bike paths and walking paths to encourage walking, cycling and playing, he added.
Following Henderson's emergency surgery for a cranial aneurysm that caused a series of mini-strokes in 2012, the recovering father of two was astonished to notice the prevalence of heart and stroke-related illnesses in Brockville.
Active in recreational sports all of his life, Henderson said multiple head traumas and a weak spot on a blood vessel contributed to the life-threatening aneurysm.
By having access to the right medicine quicker and good recognition of when a stroke is happening, specialists have been able to cut down the death rates considerably, said Henderson, who suffered headaches and vision impairment months before the surgery.
What they're starting to realize is that it's happening more often with younger people, and I'm a good case-study of that.
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Saving locals from stroke