Stroke Symptoms and Signs

  • Stroke
    A stroke is caused by the interruption of the blood supply to the brain, usually because a blood vessel bursts or is blocked by a clot. This cuts off the supply of oxygen and nutrients, causing damage to the brain tissue. The effects of a stroke depend on which part of the brain is injured and how severely it is affected. A very severe stroke can cause sudden death.
Submitted by PatientsEngage on 29 October 2015

Here are some of the general symptoms noticed in a stroke:

  • Sudden-onset face weakness
  • Arm drift (ie, if a person, when asked to raise both arms, involuntarily lets one arm drift downwards) 
  • Abnormal speech

Some symptoms depend upon the part of brain involved. If the brain stem (the part that joins the brain to the spine) is affected, it may result in the following: Altered smell, taste, hearing or vision (total or partial)

  • Drooping of eyelid and weakness of eye muscles
  • Decreased sensation and muscle weakness of the face
  • Balance problems
  • Altered breathing and heart rate
  • Weakness in neck muscle with inability to turn head to one side
  • Weakness in tongue (inability to move tongue from side to side)

If the middle part of the brain is involved, it can produce the following symptoms:

  • Difficulty with speaking, hearing, reading and/or writing
  • Speech disorder resulting from nerve injury 
  • Loss of vision 
  • Memory deficits 
  • Disorganised thinking, confusion

If the little brain (the part located at the back of the brain) is involved, the patient may have the following:

  • Altered walking gait
  • Altered movement coordination
  • Improper balance

As you can see the symptoms of stroke are complex.  Understand the importance of acting quickly and following FAST

FAST - Face, Arm, Speech, Time

  • Is the Face uneven  
  • Is the Arm hanging down or Leg not working as expected
  • Is the Speech slurred
  • Time - rush to a hospital quickly - within 4.5 hours

 

Community
Neurological Conditions
Stroke Rehab and Recovery
Condition
Stroke
Changed
Sun, 10/24/2021 - 19:39

Stories

  • Payal in a brown dress holding her mother in a yellow kurta and white dupatta from behind
    How Our Entire Family Rallies Around My Mother, My Dad's Primary Caregiver
    Payal talks about how she has seen her father deteriorate physically and mentally over the years due to stroke. She and her mother play an active role in his daily care which has become tougher over time. Payal, tell us about your father’s condition? My father had a brain stroke 15 years back and he has been slowly deteriorating day by day. He has lost most of his memory and struggles to even remember his children’s names. He often wanders off if left alone, so he needs to be monitored 24 hours…
  • Stroke Is One Of The Leading Disabling Conditions In The World
    On World Stroke Day, Prof Dr Dipes Kumar Mandal, Founder-President - Stroke Foundation of Bengal talks about how a condition like Stroke, which has far reaching consequences, needs to be taken more seriously. Do you think stroke is one of the most debilitating conditions? Why? Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disabilities globally. While in USA, heart disease is the leading cause of death, in China, Stroke (Brain Attack) is the leading cause of death as well as disabilities…
  • Stroke Rehabiliation and Recovery Tips
    Stroke Rehabilitation and Recovery is a long drawn out process which can be exhausting and de-motivating for both the survivors and their family members. We have compiled some of the best tips from patients, family caregivers and professionals. Stroke survivor Javed Ameer's 3 most important tips for rehabilitation for a cerebral stroke patient are: Be ‘physical’. Cycle, walk, jog, run, exercise……… Accept your fate and state. Mentally. Faster you do it, better for your peace of mind! Reading…
  • Mausumi, a dark haired woman on the right with her mother, a person with dementia on the left. Mother is wearing specs and a bindi on her forehead and you can see the blue and white sari draped around her shoulders
    Patience And Innovation Are The Most Important Attributes Of A Caregiver For Persons With Dementia
    Mausumi Ghosh from Mumbai talks about the travails of taking care of her mother, 77 who suffers from dementia in addition to other conditions like osteosporosis. My mother is an osteoporosis patient from 2003 when she underwent hip replacement operation in Mumbai. She recovered from the same very well and was mobile and independent till she met with a ‘fall’ at home in 2010 and broke her ‘femur bone’ (left leg). She got herself operated twice in Kolkata in AMRI hospital and both the times the ‘…
  • Image Description: An elderly person with a walker and supported by a caregiver
    12 Confusing and Overlapping Symptoms in the Elderly
    Symptoms like weight loss, memory loss, weakness, and fatigue should not be mistaken as a sign of the"normal aging" process. Dr. Shital Patel explains 12 common but misleading symptoms in the elderly and why you should seek a doctor's opinion instead of ignoring them.  Symptoms in the elderly can have very different causes than they may have in a young person. Many symptoms in the geriatric population may be masked by concurrent chronic ailments, injuries, age-related physiological…
  • Image: Stock pic of a woman wearing a grey jacket, light blue pants staring in front with nooks lined up behind her
    A Tumour In The Heart And a Cerebral Stroke!
    And she still counts her blessings! Bhairavi (not her real name) fainted and lost her vision, speech all at once. Read more to find out how she came to understood the cause and how she resumed painting.  The beginning It all started in summer of 2004, when my husband had just lost his mother and we went to Calcutta for her last rites. The evening of the shraadh or memorial gathering, I was looking for a mouth freshener since I hadn’t eaten all day. My relative offered me some supari (…
  • Image: Stock image of two people communicating with each other but the words in the speech bubbles are jumbled
    Speech and Language Breakdown after Stroke
    After a stroke nearly 20-40 per cent patients develop communication problems or aphasia, the inability to comprehend and formulate language because of damage to specific language areas in the brain. Dr Sujata Gandhi, Speech Therapist, Nanavati Hospital, advises that speech and language therapy is the best way to restore normalcy and quality of life. How does a stroke or ‘brain attack’ affect speech and communication? A stroke causes damage to the Speech and Language areas of the brain. For most…
  • Javed Ameer a stroke survivor who talks of his rehab journey
    My 3 Tips For Rehabilitation After A Cerebral Stroke
    Javed Ameer talks about how he picked up the pieces after a cerebral stroke and his three mantras for successful rehabilitation. Trigger warning: Includes suicide ideation  1.    What were the immediate effects of your cerebral stroke? I returned home, paralysed. and almost 80% blind (could only see silhouettes!), led by my daughters. Extremely miraculously, my total vision came back one fine day as I stood in my balcony. The whole vision just came suddenly as if someone has…
  • He Lost Many Gifts, But Not His Sense of Victory
    Vasant Samant, a supremely independent man, lost all that was dear to him when he suffered a stroke and was paralysed on the left side of his body. Into 10 years of his stroke, his daughter, Deepa Soman, noted down 10 lessons to caregivers drawn from her experience of inspiring and being inspired. Carrying his tray of tea and biscuits at 6 am, I enter his room. He has left his door slightly ajar, sign that he is up and ready for his tea. He has pulled the calendar off the wall as is his monthly…
  • A Stroke Survivor Speaks - "Everything in Life Can Change in an Instant"
    Javed Ameer,54 from Ahmedabad, India had a life changing experience when he suffered a cerebral stroke, despite leading a disciplined life. He talks about how he has coped and is still coping with it, and rues about the unpredictability of life. Please tell us a bit about your condition before you had the stroke. There is nothing exceptional about my condition. I used to be on medicines and a management regime for essential hypertension for some 5 years and had an exciting high-adrenalin job in…