The month of June is Stroke Awareness Month.
The Heart & Stroke Foundation uses the occasion to continue raising awareness about heart disease and stroke. This year, it’s focusing on a recently-released report called “Different Strokes: Recovery, Triumphs and Challenges at Any Age.”
Donna Hastings, the foundation’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Alberta, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, told the Trending 55 Newsroom that as the title implies, strokes can happen to people at any age.
“Today, more young people are having stokes,” said Hastings. “So, the number of people living with strokes and requiring support will continue to increase. In fact, there’s 400-thousand Canadians living with long-term disabilities from strokes, and this number is expected to double within the next 20 years.”
Hastings says in the province of Alberta, there are about 6,000 hospitalizations each year due to stroke.
“We’ve also got about 1,800 babies and children living with the effects of stroke,” she said. “In fact, we have a researcher in Calgary, Doctor Adam Curtain, who is working with these young children who have different needs, or different brain developments. And there’s a trans-cranial re-mapping that can occur in their brain, which helps them to increase their thinking or motor capacities. In fact, Doctor Curtain’s already done two clinical trials of research involving 75 kids.”
Donna Hastings, CEO for the Heart & Stroke Foundation in Alberta, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. (Photo/LinkedIn)
To check for signs of a stroke, Hastings says to look no further than the foundation’s FAST program.
“F is for Face, as in is it drooping,” said Hastings. “A is for Arms, like can you raise them. S is for Speech, like is it slurring, garbled or jumbled. And T is for Time, as in, you need to call 911 fast.”
She says one way to decrease the impact of stroke recovery is to get all Albertans to the hospital quickly if they’re experiencing these symptoms.
“One example includes the case of Bill Vanden Dungen two years ago,” Hastings said. “Vanden Dungen, a farmer from the Spirit River area, had finished work feeling tired. His wife, Joyce, might have let him rest after that, but then noticed that Bill’s face was drooping. That’s when she remembered an ad she saw about the FAST program, and immediately called 911.
“Within minutes, the ambulance arrived to take Bill to the Spirit River hospital in Spirit River,” she continued. “He was then air-lifted to Grande Prairie to receive more treatment. Today, he and Joyce are doing well, and are now enjoying retirement.”
She says for this year, Alan Frew, the lead singer for Glass Tiger, is doing commercials for them throughout the month in order to raise awareness for stokes. Frew himself is a stroke survivor, having suffered one in 2015 at the age of 58.
Hastings says if anyone wants to help bring out awareness, just open your door and your email to any foundation member looking to talk about getting awareness, and to advance research about this ongoing issue.
– Posted by BET
