Loes Pater had a stroke in 2015, but did not immediately realize it. “I lost my speech, but would go to a musical with a friend,” she tells EditieNL. “That was a two-hour drive for me, so I just got in the car and drove there. I couldn’t talk, but I didn’t take a stroke into account. I was 38 at the time, I felt that was much too young for this.”
‘Far-from-my-bedshow’
So she just drove to the musical, attended it, and then drove back home. The next day Loes went to the doctor, who referred her to the hospital. “Because I really had a stroke. They indicated that I should have come earlier, but I knew a lot. It was a far-from-my-bed show. I thought it might be stress.”
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Research
Researchers from Erasmus MC analyzed general practitioner data from 167,000 people in the Rotterdam region, in the period March to December 2020. It showed that doctors in the region saw 29 percent fewer strokes and 37 percent fewer TIAs during the first corona wave. The researchers believe that the advice to stay at home may have led to people not seeking help despite alarm symptoms.
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Six years later, Loes is doing ‘okay’. She is incapacitated for work and suffers from overstimulation. “I have had many complaints about it. Everything can be too much. I can’t drive for more than twenty minutes, I am easily dizzy and nauseous and my balance is disturbed.” So she had to adjust a lot. “I live in a different house and can’t go away for a weekend, work or go to a festival. I have a quiet life, but I’m at peace with that.”
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Loes thinks she would have fewer complaints if she had gone to a doctor sooner. “Then they could have thinned the blood clot and I might still have been able to work. I want to tell people who experience this that they should always seek help. Your life is too important to mess around with it and you will get worse complaints if you take it for a long time. keeps walking around.”
The faster the better
This is confirmed by Alis Hesmatollah, neurologist in training at Erasmus MC. “The longer you wait, the more chance of damage. So call 112 immediately,” she tells EditieNL.
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But how do you know you’re having a stroke or TIA? “Common features include a drooping corner of the mouth, loss of strength and difficulty pronouncing words.”
Oxygen deficiency
During a stroke, a function of your brain is cut off. The consequences depend on which part of the brain is involved. “When you have a stroke — a stroke or brain haemorrhage — you have a clot stuck in your brain vessels and oxygen cannot flow to part of the brain,” Hesmatollah said. A TIA develops in the same way, only the blood clot dissolves on its own. Full recovery usually occurs within half an hour.
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In the case of a stroke, the clot does not go away on its own. If you are in a hospital quickly, a blood thinner can make the clot disappear. It can also be removed mechanically. “The first moments with too little oxygen are not permanent, so it is nice if you can remove the blood clot quickly. If you are too late, the symptoms of failure become permanent. That can have a major impact on your life.”
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