Someone in the U.S. has a stroke about every 40 seconds, and strokes kill about one person every four minutes, according to the American Stroke Association (ASA).

Stroke is also the leading cause of long-term disability in the U.S. These startling numbers reinforce the importance of fast response times in treating strokes as they occur. That critical window of time begins the moment that stroke symptoms appear and continues as a patient enters the door of an ER. If too much time elapses, the higher the risk of administering the clot-busting drug, tPA, which means a greater possibility of permanent disability or death from a stroke.

"Time is of the essence; you really want to get to the hospital fast," says Felipe De Los Rios, M.D., Medical Director, Stroke Program at Baptist Health Neuroscience Center.

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[Transcript]

[F.A.S.T.: Know the signs of stroke]
Felipe De Los R...: One way in which people can understand or recognize the signs of a stroke is through the acronym FAST.
The F stands for face, so there's weakness on one side of the face.
The A stands for arm, so there's weakness in an arm. We typically ask the person to smile for the face and for the arms to lift both arms up and you can see one arm drift down or so.
[Graphic of signs to determine strokes]
The S is for speech, where the speech is either garbled, it's not sounding right, or there's difficulty understanding or speaking at all.
And then the T's for time, because time is off the essence, you really want to get fast to the hospital, and the way to do that is via 911 EMS fire rescue. That's the best way to reach the hospital and get treatments quickly, not just transport time, but because they can give us a heads up that you're coming to the hospital, what is the time that you will arrive so we can prepare and be ready when you arrive.
[For more information BaptistHealth.net/Stroke]

[End Transcript]

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