“In Mexico, we estimate that there are approximately 150,000 stroke patients per year; imagine that one in five of them dies and three out of five are left with a disability. And the following year, another 150,000. It is a problem of a very large magnitude at a social level,” explained Dr. Juan Manuel Calleja Castillo, leader of the Stroke Program at the ABC Medical Center.
A simulation carried out in the ABC Medical Center It demonstrated how specialists save the life of a patient who suffered a cerebral infarction, also known as a stroke, and was on the verge of death.
Emergency Care and Medical Evaluation
During the performance witnessed by Uno TV, A man arrived at the hospital in a wheelchair with his mother, who was unresponsive and had stopped moving part of her body. Dr. Pedro Argüelles attended to the case and asked about her clinical signs. The family member stated, “My mother isn’t speaking, she can’t move the right side of her body, and her eyes are twitching to the left.” The son also explained that the patient suffered from diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiac arrhythmia, and that she had stopped her treatments a month prior.
Given these signs, which can include facial paralysis, limb weakness, difficulty speaking, or severe headache, specialists stressed the urgent need to go to a hospital. To identify these signs, doctors use the CAMALEÓN tool.
- THAT: weakness or drooping on one side of the face, making it look uneven or crooked.
- AND: numbness or weakness in hand, arm or leg.
- FROM: the moment to act, identifying the time when the symptoms began.
Types of Stroke and Treatment Applied
Dr. Juan Manuel Calleja explained that a stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain is interrupted or a blood vessel ruptures, causing the death of neurons and permanent damage. It is divided into ischemic stroke—when a blood clot obstructs an area, causing that part to “basically die”—and hemorrhagic stroke, caused by the rupture of a blood vessel due, for example, to a sudden increase in blood pressure.
In the case of the simulation carried out in the ABC Medical Center, The doctors located a clot in a cerebral artery and decided to apply intravenous thrombolysis, which consists of administering a drug intravenously, along with a mechanical thrombectomy.
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