Stroke prevention and awareness in France, Digi Mart USA News (Saint-Nazaire, France): The hospital in Saint-Nazaire mobilized this Tuesday as part of World Stroke Day. In France, one person in four is affected personally or through a close relative who has suffered a cardiovascular accident.
However, this is not inevitable: 80% of strokes are preventable.
Recognizing the signs of a stroke early offers a better chance to respond effectively in an emergency. Last year, nearly 1,200 patients were hospitalized in neurology at the Saint-Nazaire hospital center after suffering cardiovascular accidents.
The day focused on prevention, including measuring blood pressure at home. “50% of patients have hypertension and are untreated.
That is why we recommend taking your blood pressure at home at rest, morning and evening, for three consecutive days. Then you bring the results to your treating physician, who will analyze them,” explained Sylvie Dufief, an advanced practice nurse in neurology.
High blood pressure is the main risk factor for stroke. A blocked or ruptured artery then abruptly disrupts blood supply to the brain and causes an attack or a cerebral hemorrhage.
This is what happened to Nathalie Durand-Prinborgne in 2017, at the age of 53.
“I had a migraine. I wasn’t well at all, and after dinner, while emptying my plate over the trash, I collapsed.
I felt something happening in my head, and I lost consciousness. When I came to, I could no longer speak or write.
No sound came out of my mouth, and when I tried to write, the words came out jumbled. It didn’t mean anything,” recounted the woman in her fifties, who had no prior symptoms.
After her stroke, she underwent surgery. Doctors injected a drug into her veins to dissolve the blood clots.
She remained hospitalized for two weeks. Since then, she has been involved with France AVC 44 and has learned to live with what are called invisible after-effects.
“You have to manage stress, memory lapses, and speech problems. When I am too stressed or tired, I cannot speak for 30 minutes.
I have had two aphasia episodes in four days, for example. I have to adapt my life.”
Earlier this year, during a brain MRI, she discovered by chance that her daughter had suffered a stroke two months before her own, when she was 21 years old. “She had facial paralysis, and at the hospital in Nantes we were told at the time that it was allergic in nature.
In reality, it was a stroke.”
Today, stroke is the leading cause of death among women, and it is affecting increasingly younger people. “I am still here, so life is beautiful,” said Nathalie Durand-Prinborgne, with a touch of humor.
The combination of smoking, the birth control pill, and migraine are aggravating factors. The average age for a stroke is 75, but a 5-year-old child can have one, as can a fetus in utero.
Risk factors are now well known and can be reduced. “We will talk about hypertension, smoking, alcohol, sleep apnea, physical inactivity, and also air pollution.
The neurovascular society has shown that if you reduce these factors by 80%, it is possible to prevent a stroke,” insisted Sylvie Dufief, an advanced practice nurse in neurology.
The Saint-Nazaire hospital has a neurovascular unit with four intensive care beds and 10 other beds for people who have had a stroke or a transient ischemic attack (TIA). Neurologists, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and psychologists are all trained to care for these patients specifically.
In France, a person suffers a stroke every four minutes.
