Doctors warn about mistakes in first aid for stroke patients
Despite being promoted for many years, the situation of people applying first aid methods for stroke incorrectly is still common, causing patients to miss the "golden hour" for emergency treatment. Doctors warn: Finger pricking, cupping or acupressure are not only useless but also pose a risk of death due to delayed treatment.
On August 3, the Stroke Center - Nghe An General Hospital received a 75-year-old male patient who was admitted in a state of mild paralysis and difficulty speaking. The patient was Mr. Pham Ngoc Toan (born in 1949), residing in Van An commune, Nghe An province.
Notably, there were needle marks on all 10 of his fingertips. His family said that when they saw Mr. Toan showing strange signs, they suspected that he wasstrokeInstead of calling an ambulance immediately, they applied a “folk trick” they learned online: Using a needle to prick the fingertips in the hope of “clearing the blood circulation”. Only when the condition did not improve did they take him to the hospital.
Here, doctors determined that Mr. Toan had suffered a cerebral infarction and had passed the golden hour for emergency treatment - the first 3-4.5 hours from the onset of stroke symptoms, when medical interventions can be most effective. Fortunately, this was a mild stroke, so the patient was treated promptly and is gradually recovering.
Master, resident physician Dao Thanh Luu - Stroke Center, Nghe An General Hospital said: "Almost every month the center receives several cases of stroke patients who received first aid incorrectly. What is worrying is that many people still have absolute faith in word-of-mouth methods such as fingertip blood pricking, philtrum acupressure, cupping, acupuncture on the earlobes, top of the head... While these are all actions that have no scientific basis."
According to Dr. Luu, all of the above methods not only do not help the patient but also delay the emergency process, which can lead to more severe brain damage, increasing the risk of death or lifelong disability.
Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability in adults. For every minute that passes without adequate blood and oxygen to the brain, about 2 million nerve cells die. Therefore, recognizing the early signs and getting the patient to a medical facility with a stroke treatment unit as soon as possible is a vital factor.