INTERVIEW: May is Stroke Awareness Month

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - May is Stroke Awareness Month, and being aware of the symptoms could save your life -- or at the very least your quality of life.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, someone suffers a stroke every 40 seconds. By the time our interview ended, statistically someone died of a stroke, which happens every 3½ minutes.

The CDC says treatments are most effective when a stroke is recognized and diagnosed within 3 hours. Emergency room doctors and nurses don’t have to be the first line of defense against a stroke -- it can be the patient themselves or a loved one or a friend who knows the signs and knows about B.E. F.A.S.T.

To talk about stroke awareness, risk factors, and B.E. F.A.S.T., we were joined by Dr. Kerry Ahrens, emergency medical physician at Aurora Baycare Medical Center.

Take the Aurora BayCare stroke risk assessment to learn your risk for stroke (click here).

Recognize the signs:

B - BALANCE. Sudden loss of balance, dizziness, or walking differently.

E - EYES. Vision loss, blurry or double vision.

F - FACE. An uneven smile, drooping. Does the face feel numb?

A - ARM. One arm is weak or numb. Raise both arms and see if one drifts downward.

S - SPEECH. Slurred or hard to understand. Confused. Do they have trouble understanding you?

T - TIME. Call 911 right away! Tell first responders what time the symptoms first appeared.

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