Why more people do not call 911 when stroke symptoms strike

When stroke symptoms manifest themselves, not everyone calls 911 – a decision that left the experts puzzled. Now, a small study reveals some of the reasons.

The research, presented next week at the International Stroke Conference of the American Stroke Association in Honolulu, included interviews with 38 stroke patients who were driving or were driving someone else. at Baptist Health South Florida hospitals rather than calling 911.

Lead researcher Maygret Ramirez said that the reason most often cited by nearly a third of participants was the hospital's preference for not knowing where an ambulance would drive them. Other reasons given by the patients did not realize that it was an emergency: a family member who preferred to drive or who thought they could go to the hospital. more quickly he was driving rather than waiting for an ambulance.

"The fact that the hospital's preference is the number one reason for not calling 911 tells us that we need to provide better education on this issue," said Ramirez, nurse practitioner at the Baptist Health Neuroscience Center in Miami. . "People really need to understand that stroke can be catastrophic if it is not treated on time."

The patients' concerns are not wrong. The guidelines recommend emergency medical teams to take patients with stroke to the nearest hospital, which can administer alteplase, a clot medication. . Ramirez said that SMU teams generally learn to refuse a patient's request to visit another hospital.

That said, she added, this should not deter people from dialing 911. If a patient wants to go to another hospital, "he could ask to be transferred (on the spot) after the first badessment."

Rapid action is essential in the treatment of stroke, as early treatment results in higher survival rates and lower disability rates. However, previous studies had found that more than one in three stroke victims did not call 911, but instead turned to self-transportation to get to the hospital. # 39; s hospital.

"We need to reinforce the idea that it is an emergency.We need more people to understand that in relation to stroke," time, that's the brain, "Ramirez said, repeating a phrase coined in the 1990s to amplify the message that you're waiting to treat a stroke, the higher your risk of brain damage.

Ramirez said she would now like to see research on the specific types of educational messages that will make people call 911 during a stroke.

A stroke occurs when blood vessels carrying oxygen to the brain are blocked or break, causing death of the brain cells. In the United States, stroke is the fifth most common cause of death. In the United States, about 140,000 people die from stroke each year. It is also a major cause of disability.

According to the Center for Disease Prevention and Control, calling 911 for a stroke is essential because it not only allows patients to get to the hospital faster, but also to transport them to a specialized hospital. Stroke treatment.

Dr. Kevin Sheth, an badociate professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the Yale School of Medicine who did not participate in the new study, said he was surprised at the results.

"I would have thought that the main reason for not calling 911 would have more to do with a misinterpretation of symptoms, not with a preference of the hospital," he said. "And that raises questions: what do we do about it, do we have to offer more options to patients, and do we need to educate patients?"

Sheth said that he was curious about whether socio-economic and other factors, such as race, were affecting the fact that people had called an ambulance. The results are also limited by the small number of participants who have all been treated in a hospital network in South Florida.

"The question of" Why do not we make patients to the hospital faster? "This is the biggest problem in stroke research, but we have not been able to reduce it yet," said Sheth. "Ultimately, we need to get more people to call the 911 and to follow definitive treatment (stroke treatment) more quickly. "

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