Harold Swallow

Review of HCA - Blake Medical Center

On the evening of 11/04/2010 it appeared to me tha...

On the evening of 11/04/2010 it appeared to me that my wife was having a stroke. About an hour after she started having what appeared to me to be a stroke we went to the emergency room at Blake. They did several tests, x-rays, blood work, etc. I don't know all they did. All they told me was that she had not had a stroke because her mouth didn't droop. It appeared to me that the doctors on duty that night thought that the dooping of one's mouth was an essential element of a stroke. Earlier that day, she had been able to walk as well as any able-bodied person, but after that she dragged her left foot. We left Blake without any information or advice. Eight months later, 7/19/2011, she had a severe stroke, unable to stand , sit, communicate. I did my own research on the internet and reading a few articles written by doctors and learned that sleep apnea can cause stroke, heart attack and hypertension. I contacted a good urologist who did a sleep study, confirmed that she suffered from severe sleep apnea, put her on a cpap machine, and since then she has had no further episodes. Too bad Blake and their doctors and technicians didn't know that a patient's stroke might be caused by sleep apnea or that a drooping mouth wasn't essential to diagnose a stroke!!!