Researchers have been learning more about how to treat stroke by looking at in-hospital strokes, why they occur, and how they can be treated with more effectiveness. Looking at these elements, and then finding ways to carry them over into the world of senior care, can help improve the lives of countless seniors that are receiving help on a daily basis.
Every year, up to 75,000 people have strokes while in the hospital in the United States while being treated for something else. Not all of these are serious strokes, and not all of these individuals pass away, but it does contribute to higher mortality rates. Researchers have been looking at this and believe that they have found five things that can help to better treat these patients.
The five elements include: more advanced training for staff to recognize the warning signs of stroke, dedicated stroke treatment teams, better evaluation standards for stroke risk, identifying and reducing risk factors to stroke, and the establishment of quality teams designed to address stroke-related issues. These parameters won’t resolve every stroke, but they will go a long way toward reducing the severity of those that occur and improving patient outcomes.
The team recently published their findings in the journal, Stroke. Again, hopefully this can help future doctors to better treat stroke patients of all ages.
In the past, researchers have stated that once a stroke has begun, doctors have a window of two hours two begin treatment before the long term impact of a stroke will be difficult or nearly impossible to reverse. The sooner a stroke is identified and treated, the better the outcome for the individual suffering from it tends to be. This isn’t the case one hundred percent of the time, but it does hold true as a general observation. Research like what is described above helps to advance treatment so that people who fall outside of the two hour window or have more severe strokes. Eliminating barriers to treatment can help more people survive and thrive after they have a stroke
When a loved one suffers from a stroke, life changes in a heartbeat, both for the family member that has the stroke and for everyone else that is close to your loved one. It isn’t easy. But there are things that can be done to make the day to day life aspect of getting by a little bit easier.
We encourage you to reach out to your local resources. And if you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. One of our trained care professionals would love to help you and your family get pointed in the right direction when it comes to helping a loved one that has had a stroke or is dealing with another health issue. There are a lot of complications that can come along with age and having a team of pros on your side can only be of help. We’d be honored to be a part of your team. Let us know how we can help by giving us a call or sending an email.
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