tenda Health

“She was 9 months old and having a stroke! I failed to recognize what was going on. That’s partly because, like so many people, I had no idea that children could have strokes, so I didn’t even consider it a possibility. And it’s partly because a perfect storm of coincidence kept me, and even her pediatrician, from recognizing what was happening.” Recounts Jenna on Quora. She is a mother who is coping with depression of having a disabled child.

A Stroke is a “Brain Attack”
Like heart attacks, a stroke is a “brain attack”
Stroke is a neurologic deficit caused by a vascular event. The event may be ischemic or hemorrhagic. Ischemic stroke occurs when blood supply to part of the brain is interrupted reducing oxygen supply, and consequently leading to death of brain cells. Hemorrhagic stroke on the other hand involves rupturing of blood vessel causing bleeding into brain parenchyma. This bleeding induces inflammatory processes and presses brain tissue damaging it. Uncontrolled high blood pressure and traumatic injury are the main causes of hemorrhagic stroke while ischemic stroke is a consequence of clogging or blockade due to a blood clot.

John who lost equilibrium
“A family friend had a stroke while we watched. His general being and personality changed. The jovial and witty sarcastic but reliable John became constantly grouchy with fits of anger. Unthankful when helped. He would spill hot tea on a visitor and not sorry…he would stand their take a look, grunt and walk away as if nothing happened while the visitor writhed in pain. What was happening was that he was not able to tell what the time was…he stood on bar balconies at 9.00 am thinking it was at night. He showed up at work at the wrong times, and was fired. He eventually started showing up at work every day hoping he was supposed to be there” Narrates James on Quora.

James goes on to say how John became so unkempt, thinking that he may have a drinking problem they asked “are you afraid that those around you will think you are drunk” because his balance was becoming impaired by the day. One time he was walked home from a bar because his friends thought he was too drunk from two bottles of beer. The next day he was gone. He had succumbed to full-blown stroke!

What are stroke warning signs?
Warning signs of stroke vary among populations and are not limited to weakness especially on one side of the body including eye, arm or leg and usually accompanied by numbness. In others there is sudden difficulty in speaking or understanding when spoken to usually leaving an individual confused and disoriented? Dizziness, blurry vision and headache with no known causes have also been associated with pre-stroke

AMPATH
Stroke is third primary cause of death globally. According to world health organisation, low and middle income countries bear the heaviest (86%) global stroke burden and 30 million stroke survivors live in Africa.
Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) a collaboration of Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, Moi College of Health Sciences and consortium of North American universities led by Indiana University states use of mobile health (m-Health) initiatives to provide clinical decision support, patient education and record keeping functions. AMPATH emphasizes on new approaches to behavior change and careful attention to promoting healthy lifestyles and early diagnosis.

Vanessa the Nurse
It’s may 9th 2018. Venessa’s alarm sounds at exactly 8:45 am. She is having a “bad headache” that never stops but keeps on knowing well that it the last day of her night shifts. She can rest easy for some days after today. She feels as if her head’s burst and she turn to check if she lying in a pool of blood. As she tries to hold her head back, she starts to hyperextend but excruciating pain shoots down her back jerking her into neutral position. She can barely stand, but she’s is a nurse so at least she must know how to make clinical sense of these. She tells her daughter what happening and that she can’t make it to the shift. Her daughter calls in for her- she knows too well what her mother is describing. Then rushes her to hospital, good thing they live 7 minutes way from the hospital. They know her, she’s been working there as long as she can remember and they know what a thunderclap headache means……

Fast-forward, she wakes up phone full of messages, her sister crying beside her. She becomes concerned and senses something terrible has happened. Her sister laughs and hugs her assuring her everything’s okay. But Vanessa can’t make sense of the messages “where are you this long?” Her eyes are puffy and her once long hair now cut short feels stubble . Her sister tells her she been in ICU for a week. She exhales as a physiotherapist enters the room smiling broadly, “Ready for therapy today?” She asks. “At least you are awake today.”