A stroke is not a sentence if you provide help and start rehabilitation in time. An example of this is the story of 42-year-old Orest, who had a stroke. After all, thanks to timely help and rehabilitation, a man can raise his hand again and master his body more and more with each exercise.
Lviv resident Orest Muzyk is currently recovering from a stroke. He felt sick suddenly when he got home.
“I came home, went to the third floor, played with my phone, put it down and felt – I can’t move my hand, my leg – I can’t either, I tried to stand up – and fell. Two months – I just don’t remember,” shares Orest Muzyk.
The man was paralyzed on the right side of his body.
“His blood vessel was closed with a blood clot or a cholesterol plaque. An ischemic stroke or brain infarction occurred in a part of the brain – that is, the person was paralyzed, and it could even lead to death,” says Natalya Prokopenko, head of the neurology department of the First Medical Association of Lviv.
Each year, a stroke affects 130,000 Ukrainians. Half of them lose the ability to move freely. In order to return to a full life, people need rehabilitation.
“This is what rehabilitation is all about – we train and help those cells that survived to take over the function of those that died. The sooner we start rehabilitation, the more likely it is that a person will recover,” emphasizes Natalya Prokopenko.
The Ministry of Health of Ukraine is actively working on the development of the rehabilitation system. One of the first steps is changes in funding and the length of the rehabilitation period. After all, the European standard is when the team works with the patient for three hours every day.
“Payment for inpatient rehabilitation services will increase to 44,000 hryvnias: today it is 10,500 hryvnias. A requirement for the institution will be the duration of rehabilitation at least 21 days – currently it is 14 days. This will enable institutions to hire more rehabilitation specialists, purchase additional equipment and, accordingly, improve the quality of rehabilitation,” says Viktor Lyashko, Minister of Health of Ukraine.
Doctors remind once again: a stroke is not a sentence. After all, timely help and the fastest possible rehabilitation help patients to recover.
“In today’s world, a stroke is not a sentence. We have many diagnostic and treatment measures. But help should be provided in the early hours. There is a so-called therapeutic “golden” window: the first 4.5 hours, when the blood vessel has closed, and doctors can open it with medication or thrombolysis. A thrombus can be mechanically removed in up to 6 hours,” emphasizes Natalya Prokopenko, head of the neurology department of the First Medical Association of Lviv.
Note that October 29 is World Stroke Day. Doctors remind that the main signs of a stroke are: sudden weakness of one part of the body, impaired speech or vision, sudden severe headache or dizziness.
The main prerequisites are: hypertension, cerebral atherosclerosis (when plaques are deposited in the blood vessels due to high cholesterol), diabetes, etc. However, the disease can occur in perfectly healthy young people if there is, for example, an aneurysm in the brain that can rupture.
There are two types of stroke: blockage of blood vessels, when blood does not reach the brain tissue, and when a vessel ruptures and blood spills into the skull cavity and destroys the brain. Both options lead to paralysis of a part of the body and can lead to death.