Act FAST

The Act FAST campaign started by the National Stroke Association aims at helping people recognize a stroke. If a stroke is left untreated for long, it only causes more damage so to recognize it, the Association has come with an acronym:

Facial drooping

Arm weakness

Speech difficulties

Time to call emergency services

Any Of These

If a person smiles and one side droops, raises both arms and one arm drifts downward, and the speech is strange or slurred- if there is any one or more of these symptoms then no time should be wasted in calling the ambulance. 

Effects Of A Stroke

As pointed out earlier, a stroke can affect any part of the body depending on what part of the brain it effects. Another factor that decides the effect of a stroke is how long it takes to receive the treatment. The more it is delayed the more brain cells are damaged.

Can Be Deadly

According to the study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 20 deaths in the U.S. is caused by strokes. Depending on the part of the brain affected, some people only experience fatigue or dis-coordinated bodily functions as a result of a stroke but some need to start from basic to learn to eat, speak, walk again.

Vision Is Affected

People can experience blurriness in seeing or total blindness as a result of a stroke. In fact 1/3rd people who suffer from a stroke have vision problems. One can also have partial vision loss, dry eyes, impaired eye mobility, and jittery eye movement.

Uncommon Effects

The more uncommon effects that stroke has on vision are that of Agnosia- in this condition, the person having a stroke has problems in recognizing known faces and/or objects and Visual Neglect- in this case, the person is unaware of the things on one side of the body that has been affected by the stroke.