Emergency Care
Around 1.9 million brain cells die every minute during a stroke. Recognising three simple signs and calling 108 immediately is the difference between recovery and lifelong disability.
The time symptoms began is the single most important piece of information you can give the hospital. If the person woke up with symptoms, the relevant time is when they were last seen well.
Most strokes are ischaemic — a clot blocks an artery supplying part of the brain. Clot-dissolving medication can reopen that artery, but it is generally only usable within four and a half hours of symptom onset, and every thirty-minute delay within that window reduces the chance of a good outcome.
Before any treatment can be given, a CT scan must confirm that the stroke is not caused by bleeding, because clot-dissolving drugs would be catastrophic in a haemorrhagic stroke. This is why patients must be brought to a hospital with round-the-clock CT imaging rather than to a clinic.
Rehabilitation begins in hospital, often within 24 to 48 hours, and continues for months. Physiotherapy for limb strength and walking, speech therapy where language is affected, and occupational therapy for daily activities all produce measurable gains — but the greatest recovery happens in the first three to six months, so consistent effort during that period matters enormously.
Equally important is preventing the second stroke. Blood pressure control, blood thinners or anticoagulants where indicated, cholesterol treatment, diabetes control, stopping tobacco and treating atrial fibrillation together reduce recurrence risk substantially.
This article is general health education written and reviewed by the Department of Emergency Medicine at SIMS. It is not a substitute for an examination, a diagnosis or the advice of your own treating doctor, and it cannot account for your history, medicines or reports. If a symptom is sudden or severe — chest pain, stroke symptoms, breathing difficulty, serious injury, seizures or heavy bleeding — call 9281862028 or come straight to the emergency department instead of reading further.
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