Promoting World Stroke Day At Orange Regional Medical Center

World Stroke Day is Monday, October 29, 2018. To help raise awareness of stroke, the importance of stroke prevention and the need for rapid treatment in the case of a stroke, our team members, Anuj Vohra, DO, CPE, FACEP and Mary Kate Revella, answered some common questions and shared amazing resources on WALL Radio this week!

Listen in:

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What are the Signs and Symptoms of Stroke?

“A stroke is essentially a blockage of a vasculature that feeds the brain,” says Dr. Vohra. “And when that blockage occurs you can have symptoms like: facial drooping, or facial numbness. You can have a weakness, or numbness, in your arm. A weakness or numbness in your leg. You can also have difficulty speaking, or slurred speech.”

At Garnet Health Medical Center, we teach our patients and community about the acronym F.A.S.T.:

• F… Face Drooping
  • Ask the person to smile. Does their smile appear uneven or lopsided?
• A… Arm Weakness
  • Ask the person to raise their arms. Does one drift downward?
• S… Speech Difficulty
  • Is the person hard to understand or unable to speak? Note any slurred speech.
• T… Time to call 911
  • If the person has any of these symptoms, and even if they’ve gone away, call 9-1-1.

If you feel you have identified the signs of a stroke, immediately begin the process of getting the person to a hospital.

“Time is brain.” says Dr. Vohra. “The quicker you come to Garnet Health Medical Center for medical care during a stroke, the better outcome you will have.”

What Are Some Ways To Prevent a Stroke?

The biggest risk factors for stroke are:

• An increase in high blood pressure, or hypertension
• High cholesterol

Continuing with annual screenings for your blood pressure and cholesterol is a good place to start in the prevent of stroke. Diet and exercise are also key in the prevention of stroke.

“If you haven’t seen your physician, I would certainly recommend starting with Primary Care, and making sure that you are on the right medications so that you can protect yourself and prevent yourself from having a stroke,” Dr. Vohra explains.

Stroke Care at Garnet Health Medical Center

Garnet Health Medical Center is a designated Stroke Centersby the New York State Department of Health. As designated centers, the two hospitals have expert Stroke Teams comprising highly trained physicians, nurses and technicians equipped to treat stroke patients expediently, with the latest medicines and techniques to minimize brain damage.

ORMC has also received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award, which recognizes hospitals that meet specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients. The stroke experts at Garnet Health Medical Center provide community members immediate and crucial access to high quality stroke care right here in the Hudson Valley.

Garnet Health Medical Center is also the first hospital in Orange County, New York to treat carotid artery disease and prevent future strokes using a new procedure called TransCarotid Artery Revascularization (TCAR). TCAR is a clinically proven, minimally invasive and safe approach for high surgical risk patients who need carotid artery treatment.

Carotid artery disease is a form of atherosclerosis, or a buildup of plaque, in the two main arteries in the neck that supply oxygen-rich blood to the brain. If left untreated, carotid artery disease can often lead to stroke. This condition is estimated to be the cause of stroke in up to a third of cases, with 400,000 new diagnoses of the disease made every year in the U.S. alone.

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