As the world marks World Brain Day today, health experts are encouraging South Africans to recognise the warning signs of a stroke and seek emergency medical treatment without delay.
According to medical experts, an estimated two million brain cells are lost every minute during a stroke, making early intervention critical to improving survival and reducing long-term disability.
Speaking to VOC News, neurologist, and executive member of the South African Stroke Society and lead stroke neurologist at Mediclinic Constantiaberg, Dr Naeem Brey, said many people fail to recognise the symptoms or delay seeking treatment because strokes are often painless.
Brey said the easiest way to identify a possible stroke is by remembering the acronym FAST.
“The ones to look out for are weakness in the face, weakness in the arm and changes in speech,” he explained. “Face, arm, speech, and make a note of the time. That spells the acronym FAST.”
He said a simple test is to ask a person to raise both arms to see whether one drops and to listen carefully for slurred speech or words that do not make sense.
Brey stressed that one of the biggest reasons patients arrive too late for treatment is because they wait for the symptoms to improve on their own.
“One of the biggest reasons there’s a delay is that there’s no pain,” he said. “I’ve got thousands of patients who sat at home waiting for their speech to return or for the weakness in the arm or leg to get better, and it doesn’t.”
He urged anyone experiencing stroke symptoms to get to a hospital immediately.
“If there’s any of those warning signs, move as fast as possible to a hospital where you can get scanned and diagnosed with a stroke so that we can treat you,” he said.
Brey added that modern stroke treatments can be highly effective, but only if patients receive medical care within the critical treatment window. “The treatments we have available currently are amazing, but they are very dependent on arriving at the hospital on time,” he said.
Listen to the full interview below:
VOC News
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