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A stroke occurs when blood supply to the brain is disrupted. Or when a rupture of brain artery occurs spilling blood into the spaces surrounding its cells. Also called a cerebrovascular accident (CVA), a stroke can take two forms – ischemic and hemorrhagic.

Ischemic stroke happens when a brain artery is obstructed. This could happen when it encounters an embolism, which is a clump of matter, usually a blood clot, travelling in the bloodstream and finding its way into a brain artery. Another blockage could occur through thrombosis, where a blood clot blocks a brain artery that has been narrowed by fatty deposits.

Hemorrhagic stroke happens when a ruptured brain artery causes bleeding into or around the brain. Causes could be congenital, hypertension, weak arterial walls and the effects of a head injury.

Symptoms of a stroke could either be transient, minor or major. In a transient attack, the victim could experience severe giddiness, blurring or temporary loss of vision, slurred speech or inability to talk, weakness or paralysis on one side of the body and loss of balance, numbness (usually in one side of the body) and a terrible headache. Recovery from this would be within 24 hours; but is usually within minutes.

A minor stroke would exhibit the same symptoms as above, but with added paralysis of limbs, and recovery would be within 2 weeks. A major attack would compound it with short-duration loss of consciousness, difficulty in swallowing, loss of bladder or bowel control, loss of concentration or memory, and behavioural disturbances like babbling and depression.