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HEALTH

If you suspect you have stroke symptoms, call 911 and not a hospital. That's the lesson of a study last month in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers found that even at hospitals with training programs for young neurologists — those most knowledgeable about strokes — one of every four would tell callers with classic stroke symptoms to contact their primary-care doctors instead of an ambulance.

The extra time that takes can make the difference between temporary and permanent disability, said lead author Dr. Brett Jarrell of Cabell Huntington (W.Va.) Hospital. Five in six stroke patients have ischemic strokes, meaning they are caused by blood clots and likely treatable by the drug TPA (tissue plasminogen activator). TPA is proven to reduce disability and death, but only if administered within three hours of the first symptoms.

"Diverting patients away from emergency responders places them in jeopardy of falling out of the critical time window," Jarrell said.

Those classic symptoms are easier to remember with the three-part FAST (Face-Arm-Speech Test), developed at the University of North Carolina:

• Face: Ask the person if he or she can smile.

• Arm: Can she raise both arms?

• Speech: Can he say a simple sentence?

Call 9-1-1 immediately for anyone who can't do all three things easily. Other symptoms can be sudden confusion, dizziness, trouble seeing or severe headache.