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Understanding Stroke: The Basics, Symptoms, Treatment, and Prevention
the Basics | Symptoms | Treatment | Prevention
Symptoms
What Are the Symptoms?
You should consider these symptoms warning signs and consult your healthcare provider:
- Sudden weakness or numbness in the face, arm, or leg on one side of the body.
- Abrupt loss of vision, strength, coordination, sensation, speech or the ability to understand speech. These symptoms may become more marked over time.
- Sudden dimness of vision, especially in one eye.
- Sudden loss of balance, possibly accompanied by vomiting, nausea, fever, hiccups, or trouble with swallowing.
- Sudden and severe headache with no other cause followed rapidly by loss of consciousness €” indications of a stroke due to bleeding.
- Brief loss of consciousness.
- Unexplained dizziness or sudden falls.
Call Your Doctor If:
If you or someone with you manifests any of the signs of stroke, do not delay.
Call for emergency services.
If the symptoms pass quickly, this may indicate a transient ischemic attack (TIA), a brief blockage of blood flow to the brain that is often a forerunner of stroke. Do not ignore this warning sign.
You must get to the hospital immediately. Some treatments must begin within the first few hours of symptoms; early treatment can often help prevent a fatal or disabling stroke from occurring.
the Basics | Symptoms | Treatment | Prevention
