April 30, 2024 • 10 mins
Joanna talks with Krystal Coffman from Henderson Hospital to bring you vital information on signs that you or someone you love may be experiencing symptoms of a stroke.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, it is Joanna with SundayMornings on Sunday Win. It was six
point five Wellness Wednesday sponsored by theValley Health System is here and I'm very
excited to talk with Crystal Kaufman,director of Quality at Henderson Hospital. How
are you, Crystal? I amgreat. Thank you for having me well,
thank you for being here. Becausetoday's topic is something that everybody needs
(00:20):
to know about strokes and they canshow up at any time, but it's
important to know the signs when you'rehaving a stroke. So if you are
having a stroke, you can getthe proper help asap. So first off,
Crystal, what exactly is a stroke? I know a lot of people
hear the term, but they maynot know exactly what that means. So
(00:41):
that's a great question, and actuallyit's a somewhat complicated question, but I'll
do the best I can. Sothere's actually three main types of strokes.
The one that most people know aboutis what we refer to as a schemic
strokes, which you think about asclot strokes. So there's some kind of
a build up or a blood clotin an artery in your brain that cuts
off blood supply. So a partof your brain isn't getting the oxygen it
(01:03):
needs. Oh wow, so that'san aeschemic stroke. Those make up about
eighty seven percent of all strokes.Wow, eighty seven eighty seven percent.
Yeah, all right. And thenwe have two different kinds of bleed strokes
or hemorrhagic strokes okay, have spontaneousones that we call inner cerebral hemorrhages or
ichs okay, and that's where avessel in the head just usually from blood
(01:25):
pressure. Yeah, pops. Andthen we also have something called subarachnoid hemorrhages,
which is where an aneurysm or ablueberry basically forms on an artery in
your brain and ruptures. So thoseare the three main kind of strokes that
we deal with. But again,most of them are clots. And when
you describe it in the terms ofyou know, the size of a blueberry,
right, you think, is somethingso small that could be somewhere,
(01:47):
you know, in your body thatcould cause so much potential damage. So
it's very, very scary, butit's good to understand that there are different
types of stroke. Now, didyou mention is there one type that's the
most common, The one that wasthe eight. Which one is that one
that's the eschemic growth schem Okay,okay, so that is the one that
is most common. Is there areason why that one seems to be the
(02:08):
stroke that most people experience. Well, to be honest with you, almost
ninety percent of strokes are preventable.So it has everything to do with making
sure that we're taking care of ourbodies. So the biggest things that can
cause, particularly the achemic strokes,are things like high cholesterol, high blood
pressure, those kind of things.Because if we if we do the right
(02:29):
things and we watch our numbers,we can prevent them and that'll decrease that
number. All right, Now,what are the signs and symptoms of a
stroke? Because I am recently wasexposed to a story from a woman who
told me that she had a strokeat thirty five years old and she felt
lightheaded and dizzy, and her husbandtold her, you know what, let's
(02:52):
just get you to the er.Something's off and she's like, no,
no, I'm fine, I'm justoverworked and exhausted, and then more of
the symptoms started to show up.So what are those initial signs that someone
is experiencing a stroke? So themost common ones are things that have to
do with weakness or numbness. Okay, so it could be weakness or numbness
like one side of the face,face drooping, one arm, one leg,
(03:15):
one side of the body. Thoseare the most common ones that people
experience. But we also, likeyou said, dizziness, that is a
very common symptom of stroke. Unfortunately, it's also a common symptom for a
lot of other things, right,so it's kind of hard to differentiate.
We also have things like trouble walking, trouble understanding words that are being said
(03:36):
to you, or are trouble speakingwords yourself. You can have slurred speech
almost like you sound like you're drunk, or you know, just can't find
the word or get it out.And you know, these would be common
things that you would say every dayand just all of a sudden, you
can't do it anymore. We've alsofrom time to time we'll see blindness,
like in one eye or part ofyour vision. Okay. And then another
(04:00):
very important one is worst headache oflife. So we have something if all
of a sudden, your head feelslike a bomb went off inside of it,
chances are it did. That's themost common symptom of a ruptured aneurysm.
Wow, all right, good toknow. Now. Is there anything
in particular that puts a person ata higher risk for having a stroke.
So the number one is high bloodpressure. So the problem is is that
(04:25):
a lot of people don't even knowthey have high blood pressure, and those
that do oftentimes either don't treat itor undertreat it. So that is probably
the number one risk factor across theboard for any kind of stroke at high
blood pressure. And when I sayhigh blood pressure, it's not the same
as what we use for other things. If you gets to keep your blood
pressure less than one twenty over sixty, you'll cut your lifetime stroke risk in
(04:48):
half. Oh wow, just bymaking sure your blood pressure stays controlled.
Sure, And that's one of thereasons why we start talking about high blood
pressure now in the one forties,whereas it used to. We didn't start
talking about it till the one sixties. And it's because of the stroke risk.
Okay, good to know now.I was just telling you a second
ago that I heard the story aboutthe woman who was thirty five years old.
(05:10):
Now, when I heard that,I thought, oh my gosh,
way too young to have a stroke. But a stroke can occur at any
age. It actually can from timeto time, although it's very rare,
we will see it in children aswell. Oh. I actually, just
not too long ago, we hada twenty eight year old. We had
a huge stroke and the large vesselin the back of her head and we
(05:30):
were able to she had a bigclot and we were able to pull it
out and she actually walked out ofour hospital a couple of days later.
Wow. It was incredible. Wow. And it was because of that early
prevention, right, and she gotin there as soon as she started noticing
the signs that you guys were ableto help her and have a positive outcome
in that situation. Now, ifsomebody thinks they are experiencing a stroke,
what should they do? Time matters. Time definitely matters. It's absolutely called
(05:58):
nine to one one, Get inyour car and drive to your doctor's office.
Don't take a nap. We hearthat a lot. Oh I didn't
feel good, so I took anap. Oh. Yeah, So you
know a lot of times people hearabout how important times muscle is with heart
attacks. Yeah, but I cantell you that time is brain and even
more critical in strokes, we havea very narrow window to treat you.
So the medicine that we give theeschemic strokes to bust up the clot,
(06:23):
we can only give you within aboutthree hours of the onset of your symptoms,
okay, not three hours from whenyou hit the hospital ten hours from
when it started. Occasionally we cango to four and a half. And
the treatment that we use where wecan actually go in and pull the clot
out of the vessel is only forreally really big strokes, okay, And
that is also a very limited timeframe. So people have been having chest pain
(06:44):
for three days, they might stillgo to the cath lab and get treated.
We can't do that in strokes becauseit doesn't work. And you know,
you hit something for me, Crystalright there, because I have been
the type where I've had experienced thingsand I have maybe felt a little embarrassed
to calm or I thought I couldfix it by laying down. So I'm
glad that you said that, becausethat is not always the solution, especially
(07:08):
when time matters, specifically with somethinglike a stroke. Now I know you
work at the Henderson Hospital. Ifsomeone were to come in if they are
experiencing symptoms of a stroke. Whatcan somebody expect will be kind of the
process from when they check in andthrough recovery. Even so, it's a
lot of rush to begin with.So when you come in, we're going
to ask you a whole bunch ofquestions, and probably we're going to ask
(07:30):
you those same questions over and overagain. Part of that is so that
we get the right history. We'vegot to know when this started, we've
got to know some of the medicinesyou're on, and we've got to know
if you've had any procedures recently thatwe beat you at risk for us to
give you a clotbusting drug. Butwe're also going to ask you a whole
lot of questions over and over andover again. And that's because we need
to assess your brain. And theonly way I can assess your brain is
(07:53):
to ask you, tell me yourname, tell me what today is.
And you're going to get tired ofasking those questions, right, but we
got to do it right. Goingto get a whole lot of imaging.
So the first thing that happens almostimmediately is you're going to get a cat
scan of your head because we needto see are you bleeding or is it
probably a clot stroke? Okay,that's what we do, and then we're
gonna watch your blood pressure. We'regonna make a decision whether you're in the
(08:13):
timeframe to give you the drug.Are you a really big stroke? Can
we take you to the IR laband try to pull it out? And
then once those decisions are made,then we're gonna admit you and we're gonna
again continue to assess and ask youthose questions. Most patients end up getting
an ultrasound of their heart called anecho, just to look and see if
(08:33):
that's where it's coming from. You'regonna get some blood tests done, and
then we're going to start your recoveryprocess almost immediately the next day, physical
therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, depending on what your symptoms are,
right, and then depending on howwell you do how you recover, then
we'll figure out what the next stepis. Okay, I know, recovery
will look different for everybody based ontheir situation. Now, is something like
(08:56):
experiencing a stroke like to happen again? You know? It's interesting? It
can It depends on how well wefigure out what caused it. Almost thirty
percent of strokes. We don't alwaysfigure out the first time around. Right.
The other thing too, that youknow with calling nine to one one,
even if your symptoms get better,still come to the hospital. Sure.
(09:18):
What most people don't realize is theresomething called a tia or a transient
a schema attack. A lot ofpeople mis call it a mini stroke.
Okay, but it's where your symptomscome and then they go away. One
third of those people within a yearwill go on to have a major stroke.
So even if your symptoms come onand it looks like a stroke and
then it goes away, don't ignoreit because we need to figure out why
(09:39):
you're having that so we can preventit from coming back. Absolutely, So
that's that's a lot of what that'sabout. Yes, figuring it out what
the cause is. Yeah, Ino one would want to experience something like
that again, So obviously to knowthe risks, know the symptoms, and
know the type of care that isout there like at the Henderson Hospital is
important to get this information out.Crystal Kaufman, Director of Quality at Henderson
(10:01):
Hospital, thank you so much forfilling us in on the important topic of
stroke. Oh, thank you forhaving me. I appreciate it
Hello, it is Joanna with SundayMornings on Sunday Win. It was six
point five Wellness Wednesday sponsored by theValley Health System is here and I'm very
excited to talk with Crystal Kaufman,director of Quality at Henderson Hospital. How
are you, Crystal? I amgreat. Thank you for having me well,
thank you for being here. Becausetoday's topic is something that everybody needs
(00:20):
to know about strokes and they canshow up at any time, but it's
important to know the signs when you'rehaving a stroke. So if you are
having a stroke, you can getthe proper help asap. So first off,
Crystal, what exactly is a stroke? I know a lot of people
hear the term, but they maynot know exactly what that means. So
(00:41):
that's a great question, and actuallyit's a somewhat complicated question, but I'll
do the best I can. Sothere's actually three main types of strokes.
The one that most people know aboutis what we refer to as a schemic
strokes, which you think about asclot strokes. So there's some kind of
a build up or a blood clotin an artery in your brain that cuts
off blood supply. So a partof your brain isn't getting the oxygen it
(01:03):
needs. Oh wow, so that'san aeschemic stroke. Those make up about
eighty seven percent of all strokes.Wow, eighty seven eighty seven percent.
Yeah, all right. And thenwe have two different kinds of bleed strokes
or hemorrhagic strokes okay, have spontaneousones that we call inner cerebral hemorrhages or
ichs okay, and that's where avessel in the head just usually from blood
(01:25):
pressure. Yeah, pops. Andthen we also have something called subarachnoid hemorrhages,
which is where an aneurysm or ablueberry basically forms on an artery in
your brain and ruptures. So thoseare the three main kind of strokes that
we deal with. But again,most of them are clots. And when
you describe it in the terms ofyou know, the size of a blueberry,
right, you think, is somethingso small that could be somewhere,
(01:47):
you know, in your body thatcould cause so much potential damage. So
it's very, very scary, butit's good to understand that there are different
types of stroke. Now, didyou mention is there one type that's the
most common, The one that wasthe eight. Which one is that one
that's the eschemic growth schem Okay,okay, so that is the one that
is most common. Is there areason why that one seems to be the
(02:08):
stroke that most people experience. Well, to be honest with you, almost
ninety percent of strokes are preventable.So it has everything to do with making
sure that we're taking care of ourbodies. So the biggest things that can
cause, particularly the achemic strokes,are things like high cholesterol, high blood
pressure, those kind of things.Because if we if we do the right
(02:29):
things and we watch our numbers,we can prevent them and that'll decrease that
number. All right, Now,what are the signs and symptoms of a
stroke? Because I am recently wasexposed to a story from a woman who
told me that she had a strokeat thirty five years old and she felt
lightheaded and dizzy, and her husbandtold her, you know what, let's
(02:52):
just get you to the er.Something's off and she's like, no,
no, I'm fine, I'm justoverworked and exhausted, and then more of
the symptoms started to show up.So what are those initial signs that someone
is experiencing a stroke? So themost common ones are things that have to
do with weakness or numbness. Okay, so it could be weakness or numbness
like one side of the face,face drooping, one arm, one leg,
(03:15):
one side of the body. Thoseare the most common ones that people
experience. But we also, likeyou said, dizziness, that is a
very common symptom of stroke. Unfortunately, it's also a common symptom for a
lot of other things, right,so it's kind of hard to differentiate.
We also have things like trouble walking, trouble understanding words that are being said
(03:36):
to you, or are trouble speakingwords yourself. You can have slurred speech
almost like you sound like you're drunk, or you know, just can't find
the word or get it out.And you know, these would be common
things that you would say every dayand just all of a sudden, you
can't do it anymore. We've alsofrom time to time we'll see blindness,
like in one eye or part ofyour vision. Okay. And then another
(04:00):
very important one is worst headache oflife. So we have something if all
of a sudden, your head feelslike a bomb went off inside of it,
chances are it did. That's themost common symptom of a ruptured aneurysm.
Wow, all right, good toknow. Now. Is there anything
in particular that puts a person ata higher risk for having a stroke.
So the number one is high bloodpressure. So the problem is is that
(04:25):
a lot of people don't even knowthey have high blood pressure, and those
that do oftentimes either don't treat itor undertreat it. So that is probably
the number one risk factor across theboard for any kind of stroke at high
blood pressure. And when I sayhigh blood pressure, it's not the same
as what we use for other things. If you gets to keep your blood
pressure less than one twenty over sixty, you'll cut your lifetime stroke risk in
(04:48):
half. Oh wow, just bymaking sure your blood pressure stays controlled.
Sure, And that's one of thereasons why we start talking about high blood
pressure now in the one forties,whereas it used to. We didn't start
talking about it till the one sixties. And it's because of the stroke risk.
Okay, good to know now.I was just telling you a second
ago that I heard the story aboutthe woman who was thirty five years old.
(05:10):
Now, when I heard that,I thought, oh my gosh,
way too young to have a stroke. But a stroke can occur at any
age. It actually can from timeto time, although it's very rare,
we will see it in children aswell. Oh. I actually, just
not too long ago, we hada twenty eight year old. We had
a huge stroke and the large vesselin the back of her head and we
(05:30):
were able to she had a bigclot and we were able to pull it
out and she actually walked out ofour hospital a couple of days later.
Wow. It was incredible. Wow. And it was because of that early
prevention, right, and she gotin there as soon as she started noticing
the signs that you guys were ableto help her and have a positive outcome
in that situation. Now, ifsomebody thinks they are experiencing a stroke,
what should they do? Time matters. Time definitely matters. It's absolutely called
(05:58):
nine to one one, Get inyour car and drive to your doctor's office.
Don't take a nap. We hearthat a lot. Oh I didn't
feel good, so I took anap. Oh. Yeah, So you
know a lot of times people hearabout how important times muscle is with heart
attacks. Yeah, but I cantell you that time is brain and even
more critical in strokes, we havea very narrow window to treat you.
So the medicine that we give theeschemic strokes to bust up the clot,
(06:23):
we can only give you within aboutthree hours of the onset of your symptoms,
okay, not three hours from whenyou hit the hospital ten hours from
when it started. Occasionally we cango to four and a half. And
the treatment that we use where wecan actually go in and pull the clot
out of the vessel is only forreally really big strokes, okay, And
that is also a very limited timeframe. So people have been having chest pain
(06:44):
for three days, they might stillgo to the cath lab and get treated.
We can't do that in strokes becauseit doesn't work. And you know,
you hit something for me, Crystalright there, because I have been
the type where I've had experienced thingsand I have maybe felt a little embarrassed
to calm or I thought I couldfix it by laying down. So I'm
glad that you said that, becausethat is not always the solution, especially
(07:08):
when time matters, specifically with somethinglike a stroke. Now I know you
work at the Henderson Hospital. Ifsomeone were to come in if they are
experiencing symptoms of a stroke. Whatcan somebody expect will be kind of the
process from when they check in andthrough recovery. Even so, it's a
lot of rush to begin with.So when you come in, we're going
to ask you a whole bunch ofquestions, and probably we're going to ask
(07:30):
you those same questions over and overagain. Part of that is so that
we get the right history. We'vegot to know when this started, we've
got to know some of the medicinesyou're on, and we've got to know
if you've had any procedures recently thatwe beat you at risk for us to
give you a clotbusting drug. Butwe're also going to ask you a whole
lot of questions over and over andover again. And that's because we need
to assess your brain. And theonly way I can assess your brain is
(07:53):
to ask you, tell me yourname, tell me what today is.
And you're going to get tired ofasking those questions, right, but we
got to do it right. Goingto get a whole lot of imaging.
So the first thing that happens almostimmediately is you're going to get a cat
scan of your head because we needto see are you bleeding or is it
probably a clot stroke? Okay,that's what we do, and then we're
gonna watch your blood pressure. We'regonna make a decision whether you're in the
(08:13):
timeframe to give you the drug.Are you a really big stroke? Can
we take you to the IR laband try to pull it out? And
then once those decisions are made,then we're gonna admit you and we're gonna
again continue to assess and ask youthose questions. Most patients end up getting
an ultrasound of their heart called anecho, just to look and see if
(08:33):
that's where it's coming from. You'regonna get some blood tests done, and
then we're going to start your recoveryprocess almost immediately the next day, physical
therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, depending on what your symptoms are,
right, and then depending on howwell you do how you recover, then
we'll figure out what the next stepis. Okay, I know, recovery
will look different for everybody based ontheir situation. Now, is something like
(08:56):
experiencing a stroke like to happen again? You know? It's interesting? It
can It depends on how well wefigure out what caused it. Almost thirty
percent of strokes. We don't alwaysfigure out the first time around. Right.
The other thing too, that youknow with calling nine to one one,
even if your symptoms get better,still come to the hospital. Sure.
(09:18):
What most people don't realize is theresomething called a tia or a transient
a schema attack. A lot ofpeople mis call it a mini stroke.
Okay, but it's where your symptomscome and then they go away. One
third of those people within a yearwill go on to have a major stroke.
So even if your symptoms come onand it looks like a stroke and
then it goes away, don't ignoreit because we need to figure out why
(09:39):
you're having that so we can preventit from coming back. Absolutely, So
that's that's a lot of what that'sabout. Yes, figuring it out what
the cause is. Yeah, Ino one would want to experience something like
that again, So obviously to knowthe risks, know the symptoms, and
know the type of care that isout there like at the Henderson Hospital is
important to get this information out.Crystal Kaufman, Director of Quality at Henderson
(10:01):
Hospital, thank you so much forfilling us in on the important topic of
stroke. Oh, thank you forhaving me. I appreciate it
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