Letter to the editor: Do you know the signs of stroke?

Letter to the Daily Herald Editor:

With all the news about stroke awareness, I am here to tell you it saves lives! On March 2, my husband had a stroke. I assessed him and found he couldn't move his left side. Within three minutes I was on the phone calling 911. In less than 10 minutes the Wheaton EMTs were here and confirmed that he was stroking. They had notified the Northwest Medicine Mobile Stroke Unit that arrived about five minutes later. They moved him to the Stroke Mobile, did a CT scan on him and after further confirmation started the clot buster TPA, all within 45-50 minutes of the onset of the stroke.

We are happy to say that it worked! In less than 24 hours he had full use of his left side, full feeling, and his slurred speech was gone and he requires no physical therapy! The stroke was caused by a 99-percent blocked carotid artery, which has been fixed. He came home five days later with no signs of having had a stroke.

Please do your homework and learn the signs of stroke!

• FAST (and FASTER)

F - facial droop

A - arm, can you move your arms?

S - speech, is it slurred?

T - talk, can he answer simple questions?

E - eyes, can eyes follow simple movement?

R - react, call 911

and:

• START

S - smile, can both sides of mouth smile?

TA - talk in simple sentence?

R - raise, can you raise both arms?

T - tongue, stick it out and make sure it's not crooked.

We also want to sing the praises of the Wheaton Fire Department EMTs who responded and to all the specialized technicians on the Mobile Stroke Unit. If we knew all of your names we would thank you in person You are the best!

Kathy and Scott Rambo

Wheaton