Did you know that one in four adults will suffer a stroke in their lifetime? According to the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association, stroke is the fifth leading cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds, and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
As part of National Stroke Awareness Month, the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Stroke Center encourages everyone to know the signs of stroke: using the acronym F.A.S.T. (Face, Arms, Speech, Time) helps you to remember and quickly respond to the signs of a stroke:
- Abnormal or slurred speech.
- Comprehension difficulties.
- Confusion, trouble speaking or understanding.
- Drooling or difficulty eating or swallowing.
- Numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body.
- Severe headache with no known cause.
- Trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
- Trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination.
The Dartmouth-Hitchcock Stroke Center is part of the New England Comprehensive Stroke Center Collaborative. The goal of the collaborative is to ensure that patients throughout the region who are experiencing a stroke will receive immediate care.
Learn more about the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Stroke Center.