Page 14 - Seniors Today - Oct 2019

I will act FAST
I will make changes in my daily life that will
help prevent a stroke
I will help my family and friends make changes
that will prevent strokes

If detected on time and acted upon without
delay, stroke patients can get back to their
normal day-to-day lives soon enough.
Reminisces Dr Susil Munshi: “I am back to
opening up the blocked heart vessels of patients,
and am thankful that my own blocked brain
vessel was opened up. This was thanks to timely
rushing to the hospital, discovering the stroke
and receiving a clot busting drug. If all this was
not diagnosed and treated, I would have been
left with paralysis on the right side, I would
not be able to do angiography and the complex
angioplasties I do till today.”

After sucking out clot
This is also called a mini stroke. When an artery
is blocked for a short time, blood flow initially
slows down or stops and then the artery gets
unblocked quickly or a new path opens up,
blood flow is restored, symptoms last for a
short time and then disappear, this is actually
a warning that a full-blown stroke may occur
in the near future. If you have had a transient
ischemic attack please get investigated with
an echocardiogram to see if there are clots
in the heart, Holter monitoring to detect an
abnormal rhythm, neck doppler to check for any
plaque in the carotid arteries, MR angiogram
to detect plaques in brain vessels. All these are
treatable. If there are clots in the heart they can
be dissolved with blood thinners, if there is an
abnormal rhythm medication or a pacemaker
can control it. If there are plaques in the neck
vessels these can be treated with stenting or
surgery. All these will prevent a stroke from
happening. (A Holter monitor is a medical
device that measures the heart’s rhythm.)
A good motto to maintain: FAST mnemonic

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