Last Friday afternoon, my Papa called me at work and told me that my 94 year old grandma had a stroke. In a panic, I got on the wrong bus, lost my CTA card in transit, and had to go to the ATM to get money to get a new CTA card to get on the El; but I finally got on the Metra train towards home. Leaving the city of Chicago behind me, I remembered my grandmother: her chocolate chip cookies, her water-skiing in her floral bathing cap, her morning runs, her oatmeal mush, and much more. Some of you may also know someone who has had a stroke, also called a brain attack. Driving to the hospital with my Papa, he asked me all about strokes. I didn't know all the answers, so I did my science research.
Blood vessels carry food and oxygen to the brain. The brain is only about 2% of our total body weight, but it receives 20% of our blood supply. What is a stroke? A stroke happens when the blood supply to the brain is stopped. The brain cells start to die without oxygen from the blood. Paralysis (loss of muscle function) or aphasia (loss of speech) are frequent consequences of a stroke. In the hospital, the doctors informed us that my grandma now has little control over her left side of her body. There are two major causes of a stroke: blockage of a blood vessel in the brain or neck caused by thrombosis (a blood clot in the brain or neck), embolism (a blood clot from somewhere else that has moved and now blocks a blood vessel in the brain or neck), or stenosis (constriction or narrowing of an artery in the head or neck); and bleeding of a blood vessel.
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