What are the warning Signs and Symptoms of a Brain Haemorrhage?
Whilst Brain haemorrhages are less common than other types of stroke, they are the most lethal and debilitating.
About one-third of patients don't survive the first month after their bleed, and three-quarters of those who do face life-altering disabilities.
Therefore it is critical to be aware of their signs and symptoms to be able to act quickly and get immediate care to reduce the risk of mortality and the severity of disability.
Firstly, let’s define what a Brain Haemorrhage or a Haemorrhagic Stroke is. A Brain Haemorrhage is when there is bleeding in or around the brain, something which 4.6 million people suffer from every year. There are two main types of Haemorrhagic Stroke: Intracerebral Haemorrhage (ICH), this is when there is bleeding within the brain and Subarachnoid Haemorrhage (SAH) this is when there is bleeding on the surface of the brain.
Haemorrhagic Strokes can have different causes but there are some things that can make you more likely to have a Haemorrhagic Stroke, such as high blood pressure, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and a build-up of fatty material in your arteries.
Therefore you can reduce your risk of a Brain Haemorrhage by stopping smoking, moderating your alocohol units, taking steps to manage your blood pressure and preventing hypertension e.g. managing your weight, eating a healthy, unprocessed diet, exercising regularly.
However, as Brain Haemorrhages are the most lethal and debilitating form of stroke, with about one-third of patients not surviving the first month after their bleed, understanding their SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS of a Brain Haemorrhage is vital to receiving care quickly, in the hope of reducing the severity of the damage to the brain and the chances of mortality.
“TIME EQUALS BRAIN”
Time is critically important when someone has had a Brain Haemorrhage. The most typical symptom of a Haemorrhagic Stroke is a sudden, severe headache, sometimes called a thunderclap headache, this has been described as a headache unlike anything you’ve experienced before.
Other common symptoms are a stiff neck, blurred vision, nausea and vomiting.
You can also have any of the signs of stroke in the FAST test:
Facial weakness: Can the person smile? Has their mouth or eye drooped?
Arm weakness: Can the person raise both arms?
Speech problems: Can the person speak clearly and understand what you say?
Time to call 999: if you see any of these signs.
If in any doubt, please phone 999 immediately.
So, what then? What do you do if someone is having a Brain Haemorrhage?
The current approach to treatment involves immediate care by specialists and sometimes surgery to remove the blood and reduce brain swelling. However, there’s no single treatment that significantly improves how well a patient will recover. That is why the research being done at The University of Manchester is so critical to finding better treatment to reduce mortality and decrease severity of disability after someone has a Haemorrhagic Stroke.
Click here to read more about the latest research at The University of Manchester and The Geoffrey Jefferson Brain Research Centre.
At The Natalie Kate Moss Trust our aim to prevent as many brain haemorrhages from happening as possible but it is vital to find better treatments to improve survival rates for those we can’t prevent.
Will you support this research by donating as little as the price of a coffee today (£3) and help to stop 3 million lives being lost every year as a result of a brain haemorrhage.