Stroke Can Happen at Any Age
Published on in Stroke Notes
Published on in Stroke Notes
The last time you heard a stroke story, it probably didn’t involve a healthy-seeming newborn or a first-grader who went to the nurse’s office with a headache. Yet these stories are real and far from rare.
A common misconception about stroke is that it only impacts older people. In reality, stroke can happen at any age.
Stroke occurs in 3,000 children a year in the U.S. Thanks to improvements in recognizing and treating pediatric stroke, more children than ever before are surviving and recovering after experiencing a stroke. However, about half of kids who’ve suffered a stroke will have some lingering effects, such as weakness in one side of the body, problems communicating, or trouble with learning or behavior, which can range from mild to severe.
Despite these facts, pediatric stroke still tends to fall off the radar and is often missed when children present with symptoms.
Here are a few reasons why it is so important to keep talking about pediatric stroke:
Timely and specific treatment begins with considering stroke as a possibility. When this happens, then the front-line physician (be they a primary pediatrician or an ED physician) can call on the appropriate experts for guidance and start immediate treatment. At the same time, the physician can arrange for transfer of the child to an appropriately-resourced pediatric center for a consultation with a neurologist and specific diagnostic testing, usually brain MRI.
So what can we do to keep pediatric stroke on the radar? Get informed and share what you know! There are many great educational resources available to help the public recognize pediatric stroke and ensure these children get the immediate treatment they need. Here are just a few to get started:
Always remember that stroke can happen at any age, and share these resources with your friends, families and even physicians!
Categories: Stroke Notes Spring 2016, Pediatric Stroke