Hope for stroke victims

BY NICOLA WILLIAMS

The Stroke Foundation is concerned more than a third of Aucklanders who took part in recent checks had high blood pressure.

More than 2000 people took the tests as part of Stroke Awareness Week and 38 percent were found to have higher than normal blood pressure.

A healthy lifestyle helps to avoid stroke, including eating healthily, exercising, keeping tabs on blood pressure and keeping alcohol intake to a minimum.

Each year 500 to 600 people in Counties Manukau suffer a stroke.

The area has a particularly high rate of young people suffering strokes because of diabetes, poor socio-economic status, difficulty accessing primary care and lifestyle issues such as obesity, lack of exercise, smoking and drug use, says Middlemore Hospital stroke specialist Geoff Green.

Strokes vary in severity and the only sign that one has occurred could be that a hand is not working well or speech is difficult.

Acute stroke unit charge nurse manager Pauline Owens says that means some people don't go to hospital immediately.

"A lot don't cause pain initially so some people - especially the younger males - will wait and see how it goes in the morning.

"There is the ability to give some treatment but it's a time-dependent therapy.

"If they are not seen within two to three hours they have missed a window of
opportunity," she says.

Signs that a stroke has occurred should send people straight to hospital rather than their GP.

"We believe treating mild strokes is really important because the people who are most at risk of having major strokes are those who have had minor ones," says Dr Green.

If they are ignored there is also the risk of complications.

"The most important treatment for stroke is to prevent it. It requires each person to address their own risk factors," Dr Green says.

"The World Stroke Foundation calls it a devastating, catastrophic event and it really is because the person becomes disabled, they may need to be cared for, and can lose their job and their independence," Dr Green says.

"Stroke is a condition that affects not just the person but their entire family."

When the breadwinner of the family has a stroke it can be financially devastating, and memory loss and impaired relationships can be distressing.

Dr Green says it's "the only disease you wear", because it changes body image and people look at you differently.

Strokes can also cause personality change, cognitive difficulty, time and sleep disturbance.

"It affects so much of your life," he says.

Coming to terms with having a stroke involves stages of disbelief, anger and depression.

But with medical care and rehabilitation most patients will improve, Mrs Owens says.

A hospital stay in the unit can range from two days to a month.

- © Fairfax NZ News