In the United States, there is a lot of variance on the results of a stroke dependent upon where you live. In other words, strokes tend to have more severe outcomes in different parts of the country. A newly published study found that of the more than 800,000 stroke victims each year, only 4.2 percent receive the high end drug tPA, or something of equal quality The most current information says that if applied quickly, this drug can restore blood flow to the brain and prevent the permanent disability that is often associated with having a stroke.
One implication of this recent study is that thousands of people end up permanently disabled simply because they are not going to the best locations to receive care immediately after suffering a stroke. This is needless, but most families never expect an older loved one to have a stroke. They are always a surprise, so planning ahead for one isn’t something that makes immediate sense to do. But doing it can save lives, or at least give your mom or dad a better chance of avoiding a disability.
Another major issue that this implicates is the state of our country’s senior care. If your elderly parent becomes disabled, senior care becomes a must. And unfortunately, this isn’t cheap. Poor treatment when the stroke first occurs then, can lead to even more costly care down the road. Your loved one might even need to be placed in a nursing home. A disability has a negative impact on their quality of life besides all of this, making it a very important thing to try and avoid it. Preventative clot busting treatment as soon as a stroke is detected helps this to happen.
But, how do you know where to go? The study used a map of the U.S. to indicate which facilities were using tPA and which were not, and it found that some parts of the U.S. had emergency medical treatment that was better geared toward treating stroke than other parts. By seeing where you can go that is closest to home to receive the best treatment possible, you can save your loved one from being at a high chance of becoming permanently disabled. To put things in perspective, there are over 3,000 regions that were measured in the country, and about one-fifth of them did not have tPA available at all. Areas that used it included Stanford, California, and Asheville, North Carolina. In these places, the results for stroke victims ended up being much better over the long term.
The truth is, thousands of people could avoid disability if there were a better framework in place for treating stroke. At the moment, though, this isn’t a reality. If you do have a loved one that’s suffered a stroke, consider finding better care for them, including in-home care. This isn’t an intrusive type of care and it keeps your family all in their own home. It’s not right for all stroke victims, but many will benefit with this more than any other type of care.
Leave a Reply