The Anonymous Widower

How to Cut Down Strokes and Their Effects

The more I learn about strokes the more I know that the one I had in Hong Kong might well have been avoided.

my stroke was caused by atrial fibrillation. This was detected hen I had a small stroke in March 2010.  I now feel that I should have been put on Warfarin, but why the doctors didn’t take this route, I do not not know. Could it be that my previous surgery in Suffolk, wouldn’t use a simple hand-held instrument, but still relied on expensive weekly blood tests? I don’t know, but having been on a system based on a machine since moving to  London, I can honestly say that the the system is better from a patient’s point of view. My previous cardiologist, who has an International reputation assured me that if I kept my Warfarin regime, I would not have another stroke.

I am now under the care of University College Hospital in London.  I happened to tell the nurse doing my electro-cardiogram there, that twenty or so years ago, I had had one that missed a beat in a flying medical. She said that that should have been followed up as it was indicative of atrial fibrillation. Instead over the past twenty years, I’ve had the odd cholesterol and blood pressure tests and that is about all.

It strikes me that, if I had had a proper heart medical, twenty years ago, then my stroke might have been avoided.

But I didn’t even see a cardiologist after my first stroke.

It strikes me that GPs either need to be better trained with regard to heart problems or less reluctant to refer patients to cardiologists.

I was also lucky in that I had my major stroke in Hong Kong.

There I was given a drip of a clot-busting drug, that provably mitigated my lasting problems. It is common place in some countries and regions of the UK.  A BBC London report, showed that it saved money against conventional treatment, by avoiding lots of expensive after care. Additionally, in London, you are always taken to a specialist stroke unit.

So it does look like things are improving in the treatment of strokes.

June 10, 2012 - Posted by AnonW | Health | Drugs, Hong Kong, Hospitals, NHS, Stroke