The average life expectancy in America is 78.8 years, or more than 690,000 hours, according to government statistics.
But when it comes to stroke, three hours are all that matter.
For Carolyn Hoover, those three critical hours occurred the day after Thanksgiving: Nov. 23, 2012. That evening, the Fairchance woman (then age 47) and her husband, Jon, had just finished dinner and were washing the dishes when Carolyn suddenly had to sit down.
She couldnt speak. She couldnt see. She was unresponsive.
She was just sitting at the table, wringing her hands, and when I looked at her, she just had this blank look on her face, Jon recalls. I didnt have a clue what was going on until the ambulance got there. The paramedics said she was having a stroke and that if she got treatment within three hours it could reduce some of the effects or reverse them.
With stroke, time is brain. Every second a stroke persists hastens the death of brain cells and the loss of physical functioning that accompanies this process. So its critical to recognize stroke symptoms and seek immediate medical attention, as the Hoovers did.
Sadly, though, many people ignore the signs of a stroke, opting instead to wait and hope that the symptoms will pass. By that time, their treatment window may have closed and the damage from the stroke is irreversible.
No time to lose
The most common type of strokecomprising 87 percent of all stroke casesis ischemic stroke, caused by a blood clot in the brain. The clot may develop at the site of a clogged cerebral artery, or it may occur elsewhere and travel to the brain until it reaches blood vessels too narrow to let it pass. (Another type of stroke, hemorrhagic stroke, occurs when a weakened blood vessel ruptures, and the resulting blood accumulation compresses nearby brain tissue.)
Strokes cause a loss of blood flow to one or more areas of the brain, and the tissue deprived of this nourishing blood supply rapidly begins to die.
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Three hours made all the difference in a Fairchance womans recovery from stroke