When 68-year-old Danny Farmer visited Baptist Health Paducah earlier in the year to register for a routine test, he began to feel odd as he was walking from the parking lot into the building.
"All at once, a little tingle like electricity ran over my whole body, just in the time you could flip your finger," said Farmer, "I was trying to say ‘electricity,’ and I started slurring the word and couldn’t get it out."
Tanner Dublin, a Patient Access Coordinator, immediately realized that Farmer was experiencing a stroke.
"During hospital orientation, we go over stroke awareness, and we have a quick card on our badge that has "F.A.S.T.," for face, arm, speech and time," Dublin said. "Knowing this, with his slurred speech and with his face starting to draw, he was indeed having a stroke. Once I noticed that his face had started to draw, my supervisor called Code Stroke, and my team lead called the ER charge nurse to notify them of what was going on. Within 30 seconds, they were there. They got him to where he needed to be."
Farmer was then rushed to the emergency department where he received a clot-busting drug known as tPA. If the drug is given during the first four-and-a-half hours after the start of stroke symptoms, it has shown to significantly reduce the effects of stroke, including lessening the chance of permanent disability.
Farmer was able to recover and was discharged a short time later.
"I was amazed the young man trying to take the information knew what to look for, and then I was told he was trained to do that," he said. "I think the world of Baptist Health for doing their job and doing stuff like that. The Lord was looking after me, taking care of me that day."
On average, someone within the U.S. suffers from a stroke every 40 seconds and nearly 800,000 people suffer from a new or recurrent stroke every year.
B.E.F.A.S.T. is a great acronym for learning stroke symptoms:
• B - Balance: Does the person have a sudden loss of balance?
• E - Eyes: Has the person lost vision in one or both eyes?
• F - Face Drooping: Does one side of the face droop or is it numb? Ask the person to smile.
• A - Arm Weakness: Is one arm weak or numb? Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
• S - Speech Difficulty: Is speech slurred, are they unable to speak, or are they hard to understand?
• T - Time to call 911: If the person shows any of these symptoms, even if the symptoms go away, call 911 and get them to the hospital immediately.
• E - Eyes: Has the person lost vision in one or both eyes?
• F - Face Drooping: Does one side of the face droop or is it numb? Ask the person to smile.
• A - Arm Weakness: Is one arm weak or numb? Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
• S - Speech Difficulty: Is speech slurred, are they unable to speak, or are they hard to understand?
• T - Time to call 911: If the person shows any of these symptoms, even if the symptoms go away, call 911 and get them to the hospital immediately.
Additional signs of a stroke include sudden severe headache with no known cause, sudden confusion, and trouble understanding.
