Woman videos own stroke to get doctors to believe.

[Tranquility1]

A woman in Canada believed she was having a stroke. By the time she got to the hospital the symptoms had disappeared and the doctors said it wasn't a stroke. They told her it must have been just "stress".

A few days later she again started losing feeling on her one side and her face drooped and she started slurring her words. This time she pulled out her phone and videotaped the episode. When she got to the hospital and showed them the video, this time the doctors believed her and she was correctly diagnosed with a stroke.

For those of us who have been dismissed in the past, taking a video is a great idea. The doctor in this article tells people that it's more important to call for help than to videotape it. But for those like me who have been dismissed previously at the hospital because symptoms have disappeared by the time a doctor has seen me -- taking out the phone and videotaping the experience may be the best way of being taken seriously. She must have felt awful the first time when she was told it was just "stress". I am glad she found a way of proving it to her doctors.

Here is the link to the CNN video and article: cnn.com/2014/06/18/health/s...

[MaryF Administrator]

Thank you for loading this on, very useful, as you know I am an advocate for telling members if possible to photograph or even record symptoms as of course at times the listening ear of the medical profession is not always on the best setting. So this was a very good idea! MaryF

[GinaD]

Brilliant idea! My dramatic health-scare-a-day run up to diagnosis included ER visits where I was dismissed by the doc there. Once, an ER doc even scolded the ambulance paramedics for being " taken in" by me because " a normal weight woman, fit, active, low blood pressure under age 60 can not possibly be having a stroke event!"

( Apparently this doc thought it made more sense to suspect that this mom and housewife from a stable family was hallucinating or manipulating.)

Again, brilliant idea!

And of course, getting treatment ASAP at he first sign of a stroke is paramount. Speed in treatment can be literally a matter of life or death. But if your symptoms resolve or lessen before you get to the doctor, and you symptom descriptions are then not believed, then one has to question what that emergenvy visit has accomplished other then raising your stress levels. . Sad but true.