NOAC or aspirin if someone is having a stroke/TIA?

Just wondering if someone one knew was having a stroke in front of you and all you had was Eliquis (or another NOAC) or aspirin, what would be the best option of those two to give them and what amount? Carey??

Neither. You don't know if the stroke is embolic or hemorrhagic. If it's hemorrhagic giving them either one will help kill them, and if it's embolic it won't help. What they need is an immediate 911 call. At the hospital they'll get a CT scan, and if it's embolic and it's been less than 3 hours since first symptoms, they'll receive tPA, which actually dissolves clots. Aspirin and NOACs don't dissolve anything.

For any medical emergency, dial 911 (or whatever your country's emergency service number is). As a layperson I can think of three things you can do that can help more than harm:

1. Administer CPR to a victim who is unresponsive and not breathing.
2. Apply bandaging and pressure to a wound that is bleeding.
3. Perform a Heimlich maneuver on a person who is choking.

It would be best to attend a class on all three of these. The Red Cross has these in every major city; however, they are not free.

Anything else truly needs to be handled by trained first responders and emergency room medical staff. You could open yourself to serious liability if you're not careful. All 50 states have Good Samaritan laws but the scope is generally limited to a legal standard of "imminent peril". I'm not a lawyer (thankfully) but to me that means unless someone is going to die in the next few minutes then you better leave it to the pros.

Thanks guys. Kind of a dumb question I guess! It's just that I live in a quite rural and relatively remote area and I've often wondered about what if anything one could do if one encountered a situation where someone was clearly showing signs of a stroke. Carey you're of course correct how would one know which type of stroke it was. I suppose I was basing my question based on the fact that 80% of strokes are embolic rather than hemorrhagic....but one really has no way of knowing.

It also bears mentioning that someone having a stroke may have difficulty swallowing, so putting anything in the person's mouth is probably a very bad idea. You don't want to add choking to the mix.

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mwcf
Thanks guys. Kind of a dumb question I guess! It's just that I live in a quite rural and relatively remote area and I've often wondered about what if anything one could do if one encountered a situation where someone was clearly showing signs of a stroke.

Is there a volunteer fire department or ambulance service where you live? If so, you could consider signing up with them. They almost always provide free training. Who knows, maybe you'd like it enough to do a full EMT course and get certified.

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mwcf
Just wondering if someone one knew was having a stroke in front of you and all you had was Eliquis (or another NOAC) or aspirin, what would be the best option of those two to give them and what amount? Carey??

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Ariel Sharon, prime minister of Israel suffered a mild stroke and was given an anticoagulant, made it worse, finally killing him.

Medical error 'may have caused Sharon's stroke'

Doctors in Israel have admitted making a mistake in December when they treated the then prime minister, Ariel Sharon, with large doses of blood thinners after a mild stroke, according to a TV investigation broadcast yesterday.
Mr Sharon has been comatose since suffering a stroke on January 4.

Channel 2 TV quoted doctors who treated him at Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital as saying that the anticoagulants given after a minor blood clot two weeks earlier might have caused the debilitating haemorrhagic stroke.

https;//www. theguardian.com/world/2006/epi

One of the doctors spoke of a "great failure" in the treatment of Mr Sharon, 78.

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Elizabeth



Medical error 'may have caused Sharon's stroke'

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Recent studies of medical errors have estimated errors may account for as many as 251,000 deaths annually in the United States (U.S)., making medical errors the third leading cause of death.

[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]