National Stroke Week So Lets Be Serious

Ireland’s National Stroke Week, will take place this year from the 16th-20th of April, 2012.

Strokes are the third biggest killer in Ireland, with over 10,000 people suffering from Stroke attack here in Ireland each year.

According to the Irish Heart Foundation, the ‘Time Window,‘ for receiving clot-busting treatment, is just 4.5 hours after the onset of a Stroke. But given that the average attack destroys two million brain cells every minute, the quicker a stroke sufferer gets in to hospital, the more of their brain, quite literally, can be saved.

The Irish Heart Foundation are anxious to educate the public as a whole, on how to identify the signs of a Stroke so they can Act F.A.S.T. thus helping to save more lives.

Increased access to clot-busting thrombolysis treatment and Stroke unit care has the potential to reduce our annual death toll (which claims over 2000 lives annually,) by up to 25%. But improved services promised by the HSE, can only have an impact if people know the warning signs of Stroke and get into hospital quickly enough to benefit. The doctors won’t be able to help you, unless you’ve helped yourself first, by spotting the symptoms of a Stroke and calling an ambulance.

The Irish Heart Foundation state that the time window for receiving clot-busting treatment is just 4.5 hours after the onset of Stroke, and while mainly, thanks to our elected representatives who consistently choose to “Toe the Party Line,” at the expense of our electorate, our nearest hospital is now 1.5 hours away, so do the sums. (Remember the Phil Hogan quote “I’m in dispute with these people, the management company, in relation to services which are not provided. Would you pay a charge if you were unhappy with the service? ” )

This year, National Stroke Week will focus on spreading the F.A.S.T. message out to every corner of Ireland, but they need your help. They need you to run a F.A.S.T. campaign in your work place, your school or your village/town, to teach the public how to recognise the signs and highlight the need to act quickly.

Many groups have run F.A.S.T. campaigns since this campaign first started in 2010, so this year they need even more people to sign up and spread the message.  Remember, National Stroke Week could end up saving someone’s life and it could be your own.

You can order your FREE F.A.S.T. Pack, including their Guide to Running a Local F.A.S.T. Campaign, by simply emailing Sarah Horgan, shorgan@irishheart.ie or by calling Tel No: 01-6346925.