I had a very sobering experience today.
Briefly, I went to have lunch in The Geo, my favourite bar, with a friend of mine, Andrea. When I got there she seemed a little "off". I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but 'off'.
I asked if she was hungover, or even stoned, she denied both and said she felt fine. Over the next 15 minutes or so the conversation seemed ok but occasionally went a bit wonky.
She kept insisting she was fine, but every now and again she stopped making sense. In the end I rang a friend of hers who lived a bit up the road and asked her to come down because I needed a second opinion.
Anna arrived and after speaking with Andrea for a while asked me if it was a wind up, because Andrea seemed fine. At that moment Andrea suddenly started talking about cat baskets and making no sense.
So we decided that Andrea should go back to Anna's apartment, I would go and get my car, and then we'd decide what to do. On the way back to Anna's apartment Andrea started getting dizzy and lost the use of her arm so they changed direction and went straight to the A&E and I caught up with them there.
Within 5 minutes of arriving Andrea had had a scan, declared to be having a stroke, and whisked off to surgery and is now in intensive care.
Anna and I didn't do bad, but honestly we could have probably got Andrea to the hospital 45 minutes quicker if we'd realised she was having a stroke. Who knew the symptoms could come and go? I didn't.
So watch the advert below, and remember especially the bit that says....
"even if you're not sure, call 999 anyway (or 911, or 111 or whatever), the faster you act, the more of a person we save!"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUabCOhn79w
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Rather a bad afternoon..... new
Rather a bad afternoon..... new