* NYS Dept. of Health
HEALTH CONNECTIONS
315 464-8668
1 800 464-8668
GET with the GUIDELINES
New! University Hospital joing American Stroke Association's
Get with the Guidelines initiative. The goal of the program is to improve the overall quality of care for stroke patients by improving acute stroke treatment and preventing future strokes and cardiovascular events.
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What is a Stroke?
CALL 911 AT ANY
SIGN OF STROKE
F— Face— Does the Face look uneven? Ask the person to smile.
A— Arms— Does one arm drift down? Ask the person to raise both arms.
S— Speech—Does their speech sound strange. Ask the person to repeat a simple phrase. Example: "The sky is blue."
T — TIME TO CALL 911,
if you observe ANY of these signs.
Credit: MA Dept. of Health.
A stroke has been called a “brain attack.” Brain cells are denied blood and oxygen and begin to die causing a wide variety of disabling symptoms and often permanent disability or death.
There are two forms of stroke:
- ischemic—blockage of a blood vessel supplying the brain
- hemorrhagic—bleeding into or around the brain
There is also:
- TIA or transient ischemic attack, which is commonly called a “mini-stroke”
Learn More about TIA >
Learn the Signs of Stroke—
You could save a life or help prevent a disability.
If you experience any of the following, call 911 or get to a hospital immediately, preferably a designated stroke center. The emergency medical personnel responding to your call will know where the closest one is. If there isn’t one, go to the nearest hospital. They can stabilize you and transfer you to the appropriate Stroke Center.
Stroke is a medical emergency. Take these symptoms seriously. It could mean saving your life or preserving your quality of life. There are treatments that can help reverse the signs of the majority of strokes, but they must be given quickly, so you need to act quickly.
The five most common stroke symptoms
- Sudden numbness or weakness of face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
- Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
- Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
- Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
- Sudden severe headache with no known cause
Less common stroke symptoms
- Sudden nausea, fever and vomiting distinguished from a viral illness by the speed of onset (minutes or hours vs. several days)
- Brief loss of consciousness or period of decreased consciousness (fainting, confusion, convulsions or coma)
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