HRMC is Still Stroke Ready
We Are All Winners When We Work Together!
Thank you for all your support and assistance in helping Hampton Regional Medical Center (HRMC) maintain our Acute Stroke Ready Hospital Certification! The certification requires many hours of hard work inside and outside the walls of your hospital, as well as close collaboration with our communities.
In December of 2022 the American Heart Association visited your hospital and conducted an in-depth evaluation of the stroke program. As one of a very few small hospitals in the state that have earned this certification, we take this as a great badge of honor and are always looking for ways to provide the safest, timeliest, and most cutting-edge stroke care possible. Treating strokes with the “clot-buster” medicine, t-Pa, is the safest, fastest, and most effective method available.
3 Hours Is All You Have!!
The guidelines for administering the “clot-buster” medicine, t-Pa, are very stringent, however. Due to the very close control over the time to start administration, we in the Emergency Department (ED) are often unable to start the medicine within the timelines required because of delays in patient arrival in the necessary timeframe. When we can give the t-Pa within the dosing guidelines, the results are often miraculous. But if you or your loved ones do not get to the ED within the window for the medicine, we cannot give it without risking serious injury to your brain. The FDA approved guideline for giving this medicine (t-Pa) is only within the first 3 HOURS (180 minutes) from the very first sign of a stroke. This means that if you start felling badly at lunch, you cannot wait to come to the ED after work or dinner, you need to come right away!! If you are showing any of the sings we describe below while you are getting ready for bed, you cannot go to sleep and see if you are better in the morning, you need to come right in so we can examine you and treat you if needed.
So, let’s review what should suggest that you need to come to the ED immediately so we can help you get back to your safest and healthiest life as quickly as possible. The signs of stroke are frequently designated with the title of B.E. - F.A.S.T. Each letter stands for another sign or symptom of stroke.
Balance: Do you feel dizzy or having difficulty standing? Do you feel like you are falling into things more regularly, having to hold onto things moving around familiar surroundings? Is you friend or loved one needing sudden help to stand or walk?
Eyes: Have you lost vision in one or both eyes? Can you see everything the way you normally do? Are there pieces of the picture that is your vision missing?
Face: Do others think your face looks crooked? Do you think one side of your face is weak? Are you drooling? Does your friend or loved one’s face look unusually weak or uneven?
Arms: Are you unable to hold onto tings you normally could? Are you dropping things abnormally? Is one of your arms hanging lower than the other, or you cannot pick it up as high as you usually can? Does your friend or family member seem to be favoring one extremity over another?
Speech: Are you having a hard time getting out the words you want to say? Are others having difficulty understanding what you are trying to say? Are you unable to understand what others are saying to you? Are you unable to understand your friend or loved one? Are they unable to make sense while talking?
