st. Augustine there Nancy shaver is
stepping down as mayor so that she can
deal with health issues during a City
Council meeting in fact on Monday she
announced that she is again battling
breast cancer and following that meeting
she suffered a stroke and had to be
rushed to the hospital and it was just
yesterday that we also learned that
actor Luke Perry is now in the hospital
after he reportedly suffered a stroke
you know he's only 52 years old joining
me now is dr. Nima agra Ibrahim he is a
neurologist with Baptist Hospital good
morning thank you for being here I
appreciate it let's talk a little bit
about if we could Nancy shaver from what
I have read
she literally finished this meeting and
was walking and took a wrong turn and
someone recognized that something just
wasn't right had that not happened who
knows what could have happened because
time is so important these cases exactly
thank you know thank you for having me
so like you said a stroke can happen to
anybody and and in this situation
thankfully she was able to be recognized
that she was having a stroke and
somebody calls 9-1-1 and she was
actually taken to the hospital right
away where she was treated right away
and time is very important exactly so
what are warning signs a situation like
this somebody who obviously knew her
well and recognized that this was
atypical for her to basically take a
left or right when she should have taken
the other what are some other symptoms
that you know maybe we may not be as
familiar with so we have this acronym
that it's called be fast or fast and
what that means is so B's for balance
for example ease for eyes and then F is
for facial weakness so if you have
weakness on one side of the body that's
very important and sign of a stroke as
for the arms if your arm on one side is
getting weak all of a sudden that's
again is a very important sign this is
for speech if somebody's not able to
speak
all of a sudden again another important
sign T's for time as you mentioned it's
so important when the stroke happens you
have to call 9-1-1 and would you
necessarily suffer all of those symptoms
at the same time or just even one is a
sign of stroke patient it could be only
just one of those or all of them but it
can happen to any of one of those signs
that can be a stroke considering that
and knowing that
there's actually video of a tense
conversation that the mayor had had with
another with the vice mayor is there any
reason that that something like that
we're intense stress all at once could
force someone to have a stroke it's very
difficult to say intense stress leads
directly to stroke but we know that the
risks of stroke include high blood
pressure and other issues so indirectly
stress in addition to other things in
life can affect the blood pressure
different hormones and that could
definitely cause or lead to a stroke so
it not necessarily then someone who does
not necessarily have family history you
know could in fact have a stroke
exactly so short can happen to any of us
and there's some risk that we can modify
there's some risks that we cannot modify
and I think we all need to focus on the
modified risk to make sure that we know
we modified the race such as like I said
high blood pressure cholesterol diabetes
heart disease disease of the blood
vessels in the neck so those are the
important prevention and I want to bring
in the Luke Perry part of this as well
we learned yesterday based on multiple
reports that he had a stroke he's 52
years old he's clearly appears to be in
good shape he's not overweight you look
at Nancy shaver also someone who looks
to be in good shape I think that maybe
people make assumptions that you have to
be overweight and don't exercise and a
smoker and and that's gonna increase
your risk of stroke and no one else will
get it as a result but that's not the
case that is not the case so it's
important for everybody to know their
cardiovascular risks but as you said you
can have very low risk and you still
have a stroke so it's important to know
what are your risks but also you know
the signs of stroke because stroke
happens which can happen to any anybody
then there are treatment available if
their patients get to the hospital the
right hospital fast and it's interesting
too and when you say the right hospital
is it just the closest hospital or right
so it is a hospital who can provide the
therapy so there are two therapy
available the TPA or clot-busting
medication that we can give but also
there's a therapy available where we can
go through the blood vessel and remove
the clot via a VI procedure
it's called thrombectomy so the right
Hospital would be a hospital who is
to provide this kind of care either to
telemedicine or directly and also
provide this care fast and effectively
and because to take care of a stroke you
need a team and it's very important to
have a great team and you know that that
brings up a point that as you're
thinking about you know your life and
your risk factors and if you are at risk
of a stroke not a bad idea to call
around and find out the hospital closest
to you that has both of those you know
treatments available to them doctor
thank you for being here I do appreciate
the insight I certainly hoped it helped
you better protect your family so that
you know what the warning signs are for
a stroke since we know we can hit anyone
and if you'd like to read more about
either Meir Shaffer or Luke Perry's
story we've posted both on our website
news for Jack's comm there will also
we'll also post this interview later
this morning just look under the health
section