How do you know if someone is having a stroke? Think… F.A.S.T.
So mum and dad arrived from Europe on Wednesday to see their grand kids (and probably us a little bit as well). On Thursday afternoon dad all of the sudden started talking like a drunk and his left side of the face dropped. Within a couple of minutes he was all normal again so we could have missed it but luckily he decided to speak to mum at that time. Going straight to Royal Perth Hospital, the ER staff confirmed our suspicion that he had suffered a minor stoke and admitted him to have a cardiac pacemaker inserted. He didn’t know that he had suffered a minor stroke and didn’t understand what the fuss was about.
Had we missed it, he would more than likely have suffered a stroke and without a doubt he would have been partly paralysed or even worse. Getting dad to hospital was urgent as the next stroke could have come at anytime. Time was critical.
The staff at the ER department and the Cardio ward at Royal Perth Hospital were fantastic and dad felt in safe hands (and so did we) and we cannot thank them enough.
Dad was saved because we spotted the symptoms straight away and they are very easy to remember if you know what to look for. If you don’t know what they are, click on the link.
https://strokefoundation.com.au/about-stroke/stroke-symptoms
The other thing is that insurance is critical. Mum and dad had excellent travel insurance (assisted by SOS International). They were also excellent (despite the fact we were dealing with a call centre in Copenhagen, we had quick and efficient response 24/7).
Had mum and dad chosen not to have travel insurance, they would have been out of pocket big time (I don’t know what the bill comes to but given that the bed was $2000+ a day they would probably have looked at a $30,000-40,000 bill. So if you cannot afford travel insurance, you cannot afford to travel.
Dad was very lucky (and so are we). He will have no permanent damage, he will be discharged tomorrow with a pacemaker ensuring he will have more energy and quality of life than before.
Please share – you may save somebody’s life.
