WACO, TX — May is Stroke Awareness Month, but one Central Texas man who suffered a stroke in July of 2017 wants us to be aware at all times.
Dwain Moss says it was near bed time he suffered his stroke.
“All of a sudden it felt like something grabbed my throat. I couldn’t breathe, and I struggled to get into the kitchen because I felt like I needed to throw up or whatever,” Moss said. “About that time my wife came in there and asked what was wrong and I uttered I didn’t know, but we have to get to the hospital, and by the time the emergency crew got there I couldn’t walk and I was slurring speech and my throat was worse. I knew something was bad.”
Moss then learned about his options from medical staff.
“We have a medicine that may cure some of the ills of the stroke, but if you are bleeding somewhere else that we don’t know about, it will kill you," Moss was told.
Medical professionals have developed an acronym called “F.A.S.T” to help all of us be aware of the signs that somebody may be having a stroke.
“Face, arms, speech and time,”, says Holly Ivy, the Emergency Room Nurse Manager at Baylor Scott & White Hillcrest. “So face is if you notice any drooping on yourself and others—even if you’re in the grocery store—and notice if somebody’s speech is slurred, or if you feel like they’re having a stroke if you ask them to hold up their arms and one of them isn’t as strong as the other, and then the T is for “time” because you have from the time of onset of symptoms and not the time that it was noted until 4.5 hours to be treated.”
Moss was one of fortunate ones who received treatment. After hospital stay, he did his rehab and continues to recover to this day.
The Centers For Disease Control statistics say almost 800,000 Americans suffer a stroke each year, killing about 140,000 a year. The CDC says the main stroke risk factors are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking obesity and diabetes. The agency adds one-in-three American adults have at least one of these conditions or habits.
