A stroke, whether it is mild or a severe one, takes place immediately and never gives the time to realize the situation. There are several case studies where the victim experienced a little fall, got up and while cleaning up let everyone know that he or she was fine, and after few hours, got admitted to the hospital and died. No one didn’t realized that he or she had suffered a stroke until the doctor confirms it, whilst the result could have changed if the surrounding people could recognize the early signs and symptoms of the stroke.

According to the neurologist, a stroke victim can completely reverse the effects if he or she can be taken to the hospital within 3 hours. Definitely it’s not some kind of magic the doctors going to do; but taking few step by step initiatives are vital in order to save the victim. Those are recognizing a stroke, doing proper diagnosis and then getting the victim into medical care within 3 hours, which is most important.

The first, most important and tough step of saving a life from stroke is to recognizing it. Sometimes, stroke symptoms are difficult to identify and lack of awareness is a major cause of it. During the time you will pass to recognize the situation as a stroke, the patient may have severe brain damage which reduces the chance of survival. However, keeping a three step procedure in mind will turn even a kid into an expert stroke identifier. Just remember the first three letters of “STROKE”, S, T and R and act as follows:

• S (SMILE): Ask the victim to SMILE.

• T (TALK): Try to make the victim TALK coherently. It could be any simple sentence like “Today is a sunny day” or anything like that.

• R (RAISE BOTH ARMS): Ask the victim to RAISE BOTH of his or her ARMS.

If the patient has trouble doing any of the three tasks, call for medical assistance without any further delay and let them know the symptoms in details.

There is another stoke sign which should also be kept in mind. Ask the patient to ‘stick’ out his or her tongue. If the tongue is twisted or has become one sided, this could also a warning of a stroke.

If you have read this article till here, please share this information with others. Who knows who will get the chance to save a life by identifying a stroke at its early stage?