Stroke mis-diagnosis costs lives – how to avoid it
By learning to understand what causes stroke, and recognise stroke signs and symptoms you could save the life of a loved one or family member.
This follows the recent death of a 48 year old British man – Jeffrey Wingrove, a former marathon athlete, who died from the stroke injury and the complications resulting from the delays by a United Kingdom healthcare provider’s out-of-hours on-call doctors. Despite repeated requests for assistance from the man’s wife, they failed to correctly diagnose the symptoms of stroke on three separate occasions.
What happened ?
This is a brief summary of the key events in this medical emergency. Not all details have been included for the sake of brevity :-
- Jeffery Wingrove collapsed after suffering from severe headaches, sweating and vomiting
- He managed to crawl to his bedroom, but was unable to move his right side easily – showing symptoms of a right stroke
- His wife called the doctor, but was referred to an alternative doctors office who were handling local requests for advice during the the night time
- Mrs Wingrove requested a home visit as her husband was too unwell to get out of bed, and he was too heavy for her to move
- On two occasions, doctors from the company declined to visit the patient at his home
- They advised her to collect a prescription for pain killing medication from a local pharmacy
- Eventually Mrs Wingrove called paramedics, who took the patient to Broomfield hospital in Braintree, United Kingdom, then transferred him to neurosurgical ward at Queen’s Hospital in Romford
- Despite having emergency surgery at the hospital he died from the stroke damage to his brain
- The total elapsed time from the man starting to feel unwell to his death was less than 48 hours
What lessons can be learned from this tragedy ?
We at Lower Blood Pressure sympathise whole heartedly with the Wingrove family, however we exist to educate, inform and hopefully help you – our readers – to avoid any repeat of this unfortunate, and we believe, avoidable episode in your own lives and families. So what what can we learn from this sad story ?
Lesson 1
We must educate ourselves to know how to quickly recognise the stroke signs and symptoms. This is the most important factor in helping to save the life of a husband or a wife or an elderly relative. Because Mrs Wingrove did not know that her husband was displaying signs of a stroke, she attempted to contact the family’s doctor, rather than the emergency services.
We have a feature article all about Stroke, and how you can recognise the symptoms – you can find it here – it explains all about the FAST (Face – Arm – Speech ) test, which is the most effective way to diagnose the early signs of the onset of stroke.
Lesson 2
We must act quickly if we suspect that any ONE of the FAST symptoms described above is present in the patient. It is absolutely essential to CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY, as this may save vital time in getting the proper treatment to the patient, which is best given at a hospital or ER Center.
Stroke symptoms awareness and fast treatment are key to stroke survival
Although the family have taken out and won a law suit, and received substantial compensation in an out-of-court settlement over Mr Wingrove’s treatment, the fact remains that he could possibly have survived this stroke damage. If everyone involved in the management of this man’s illness had had a greater awareness of this devastating life threatening condition, he may have been diagnosed and treated more quickly, and may have been alive today.
Sunshine raises Vitamin D – can reduce heart disease
Low body levels of Vitamin D are increasingly being linked to a range of serious health problems. The list of dread diseases that we face a risk of developing when have a deficiency in vitamin D makes for sobering reading – high blood pressure, heart attack, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and arthritis.
Amongst the less serious suspected illnesses that may also be linked to a lack of Vitamin D are Crohns and other type of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) complaints, and an increased susceptibility to everyday low immune system viral infections such as influenza (flu) and the common cold.
How do you get Vitamin D ?
Well, the best Vitamin D source is free! It comes directly from exposing our bodies to the sun, without wearing any suncream. Even as little as twenty to thirty minutes of sunshine per day, even in cold or frozen climates, on our face and arms during five or six of the summer months is apparently sufficient to keep our bodies topped up for the entire year.
However, it is very important to note that you should always get your sunshine related Vitamin D in small doses, ensuring that you do not spend too long in the sun (depending on the strength of the sun and your type of skin). Excessive exposure to the sun causes 2000 deaths per year in the United kingdom from skin cancers. If you are going to be exposed to longer periods of direct sunlight appropriate protection should be used after the correct ‘dosage’ of sunshine has been achieved.
Another way to get Vitamin D is through vitamin foods – dietary intake – specifically oily fish, egg yolks, dairy products, and some processed foods which have been fortified with Vitamin D such as margarine and some breakfast cereals.
A third way to increase your Vitamin D levels is through supplements that are high in Vitamin D. These are mainly derived from fish oils such as halibut and cod liver oil.
The problem with dietary intake and supplements is that it is not as easily absorbed into the body as that from sunlight. This is due to the inferior way in which it is distributed throughout the body.
Risk factors for low Vitamin D levels
The problem is faced by millions of people who live in the Northern Hemisphere above approximate latitude of 50 – 55 degrees North. This covers many North American states, pretty much all of Canada, the United Kingdom and many Northern European countries and Russia.
At these latitudes there is not enough ultra violet light from solar radiation reaching the earth’s surface for the majority of the year to meet the minimum requirements for the population.
Senior citizens, shift workers, people in jail and the long term sick or disabled also face difficulty in achieving minimum adequate sunshine doses due to their life and circumstantial situations Some cultural factors may also contribute to the problem, such as people who wear clothing that covers most of their bodies for personal or religious reasons.
Too much Vitamin D may be harmful
As with many health subjects, when too little is a problem, often too much is equally a problem. High Vitamin D levels are difficult for the body to dispose of, as it is classified as a ‘fat soluble’ vitamin. In large quantities this vitamin can cause an excess of calciulm in the bloodstream that can damage the body’s internal organs due to it’s toxicity. High Vitamin D symptoms may be difficult to diagnose as Vitamin D overdose symptoms may only manifest themselves when problems develop with the heart, the kidneys and the lungs.
How to know your body level of Vitamin D
If you are concerned about the dilemma of not knowing whether you have too little or too much Vitamin D, the only way to determine the answer is to have a blood test carried out by your doctor. The United States recommended daily amount is 5 micrograms (mcg), and this equates to eight eggs, or two glasses of fortified milk or a portion of oily fish. The United Kingdom has no recommended minimum daily amount, however the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) recommends a maximum safe level of 25 micrograms per day.
What do the experts say ?
(paraphrased) :-
Cancer research UK
‘Take extreme care and avoid sunburn, as this can cause skin cancer. limit exposure to short periods, and don’t take too much sun thinking it will do you even more good’.
British Nutrition Foundation
‘Vitamin D plays a vital role in the diet’
Sunlight, Nutrition and health Research Center, California USA
‘Cancers may be reduced by 19 percent if the entire population of the UK took Vitamin D supplements’
Longevity and Coronary Heart Disease
Claiming the full potential for your heart – the secret to longevity …
Wasted lives
Lives are being lost unnecessarily, worldwide, due to coronary heart disease. in 2007 this claimed the lives of more than one hundred and twenty thousand people in the United Kingdom. So what is the secret to longevity based on heart health?
There is no known anti-aging longevity serum, but we now have more medical and scientific knowledge about the human heart than at any time in our history. The sad fact is that few people bother to educate themselves about anti-aging, longevity, and how to care for their heart, and many treat their hearts with little care and respect. Some even treat their hearts with such extreme abuse that they die prematurely in their forties or early fifties.
The human heart is capable of lasting 120 years!
The latest longevity statistics research from the United States suggest that the heart was designed to last well past our 100th birthday – maybe even for one hundred and twenty years. This agrees with factual data obtained from studying the medical records for health and longevity from the countries which have the world’s oldest living people and the longest average life span.
The heart is an amazing machine – a miraculous collection of muscle, blood vessels and nerve tissue which has to beat continuously from the moment we are born, and for the rest of our lives. In a typical day our hearts will beat 100,000 times forcing life preserving oxygen-rich blood to the farthest corners of our bodies. This equates to 34 million beats per year. how many man-made machines can claim such a reliable performance?
We threaten our own health daily
Yet, we are constantly threatening the health and long term survival of this vital organ by our own lifestyles, behaviours and habits. We eat unhealthy diets, smoke cigarettes and tobacco, drink too much alcohol, expose ourselves to excessive stress and don’t take sufficient exercise.
International longevity risk – where do people live the longest lives?
Well, it’s a small, unassuming island off the coast of Japan – Okinawa. This is known as the world capital for super longevity, as this place has the greatest proportion of centenarians (people over the age of 100) in the entire world. Amazingly, in Okinawa, there are 35 people per 100,000 over a hundred years old. By comparison, the United Kingdom can only manage a paltry 10 people.
Why do these folks live such long lives?
There is no longevity pill, but the folks from Okinawa have a long life because they have a healthy lifestyle! This in turn produces a healthy heart. They tick all the right boxes for heart health based on :-
- A diet low in saturated fat
- High consumption of fresh vegetables, fruit and fish
- A stress-free, calm and serene lifestyle
- A daily fitness and exercise regimen
This combination in turn produces the heart healthy benefits of arteries free from disease, low blood cholesterol levels and lack of blood clotting plaque forming Atherosclerosis symptoms. There is also evidence to support the theory of calorie restriction longevity, where people who consume only 80 percent of their recommended daily calorie intake – known as ‘hara hachi bu’ – gain positive heart health benefits from this practice.
Heart health not genetic, but behavioural
Medical research into the lives of the people from Okinawa has concluded that their healthy lifestyle is responsible for an amazing 80 percent of their long lives. Only 20 percent of the long lived residents old age could be attributed to genetic factors, so there is no longevity-gene for these folks.
However, there is a disturbing prologue to the above success story – in more recent times, the increasing shift towards a more westernised diet and lifestyle has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the heart health of Okinawans under the age of 50 years – as this group unfortunately now has the highest rate of heart disease in the whole of Japan – proof if it were needed that nurture rather than nature is the principal and overriding factor related to heart health and survival into the centenarian category.