NEW HAMPSHIRE’S FASTEST GROWING ONLINE NEWSPAPER

Aneurysms: low risk, high danger, often misdiagnosed

Comment Print
Related Articles

Editor's note: This is one of a series of stories produced by The Lebanon Voice highlighting the need for faster medical response times in West Lebanon and the need for better recognition of aneurysms by rescue personnel and medical professionals nationwide.

HANOVER, Mass. - Christine Buckley is an unabashed supporter of putting aneurysm emergency response times at the top of the priority heap for Emergency Medical Services providers.

As the executive director of the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, it's her job to advocate and educate acute care providers, EMS services and the public about some of the misconceptions about the condition and the many misdiagnoses that have occurred by medical professionals on aneurysm victims in the past, some that have cost lives.

"If you've ruptured (an aneurysm) you have to get to a stroke facility as soon as if you'd had a stroke from a blockage," Buckley said on Tuesday in a phone interview from the foundation's headquarters in Hanover. "Accurate early diagnosis is critical, because the initial hemorrhage can be fatal."

Conventional strokes in which there is a blockage are much more common in the United States, but hemorrhagic strokes like an aneurysm are much more dangerous.

Each year about 25,000 people will suffer a ruptured brain aneurysm. Almost half of the victims will die from them, and of those surviving only a third will recover without disabilities.

If not treated immediately there are only worse outcomes post-treatment or a higher rate of disability, Brinkley said.

An aneurysm, she said, is a "low frequency, high risk" condition, adding "If you don't diagnose it right, they can die that day."

The symptoms of an aneurysm are often the same: Victims complain of the worst headache of their life (one survivor said it felt like she'd been shot in the head), nausea and neck pain.

Unfortunately, Buckley said misdiagnosis or delays happen in 25 percent of all patients. She said often there is a failure to get a brain scan such as a CAT-scan or MRI.

Only about 13 percent of strokes nationwide are aneurysms (hemorrhagic strokes), but she and her foundation are doing all they can to raise awareness and diagnosis recognition.

It's not easy, she said.

"Look, half these people die the same day," she said. "Two-thirds of the survivors have serious life-time disabilities. The majority of them will never work again.

"People aren't the same, they lose friends. It's bad."

Meanwhile, Drexel White, EMD Program Manager at the Maine Board of Emergency Medical Services, said while stroke, including hemorrhagic strokes are now at the C priority level of an A through E dispatch protocol, the C includes advanced life support and other services appropriate for stroke victims.

He said although a "C" response doesn't call for an ambulance to run "hot" (lights and siren) to a call, in an urban area like Portland this only adds an average of 43 seconds getting to a hospital.

In rural areas like Lebanon or Milton, however, he said response plans could call for "hot" as it might reduce hospital arrival time by seven to eight minutes which could be important.

He noted that towns like Lebanon could then develop a response plans of their own.

"So (Lebanon) could decide for these "Charlie" stroke calls we're going to run hot," he said.

For Brinkley, it's all about education. Her foundation has already produced several educational videos on aneurysm symptoms and treatment as well as a fascinating video in which doctors look at the slew of misdiagnoses that aneurysm victims are given, often with fatal consequences.

Right now BAF is in the throes of producing two new videos to raise awareness and diagnosis recognition. One is targeted to Emergency Medical Service providers and the other is for acute care facilities such as an emergency room.

She invites anyone interested in learning more to contact the foundation.

To learn more about aneurysms and watch one of the videos click here.

Read more from:
Top Stories
Tags:
None
Share:
Comment Print
Powered by Bondware
News Publishing Software

The browser you are using is outdated!

You may not be getting all you can out of your browsing experience
and may be open to security risks!

Consider upgrading to the latest version of your browser or choose on below: