Health officials bring awareness for ‘Survive Stroke Week’

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) – Health concerns are peaking for neuro specialists, as Sunday marks the beginning of ‘Survive Stroke Week’.

From May 4-10, 2025, health officials are raising awareness on how common strokes are and how they can impact loved ones.

They share that there’s two different kinds to lookout for.

Co-Director of interventional neuroradiology at Baptist Health, Guilherme Dabus, explains.

“Ischemic, which is the most common, about 85% of all the strokes are basically a blood flow gets blocked to your brain.” he said “The other which is less common, so about 15%, is when you have a hemorrhage in your brain. So that’s a de-hemorrhagic type of stroke.”

They say when blood stops reaching your brain, millions of cells being to die immediately.

Saying “stroke is a medical emergency.”

In recent studies, stroke is ranked as the fourth leading cause of death for Hispanic men and the third for Hispanic women.

Bethany Girtler is a stroke program manager at Emplify Health. She shares her input on this study.

“A lot of times, what I see, not specifically in our area but across the united States, is there’s less access to healthcare, there’s less access to resources.” she said “And maybe some of the stroke information is not put out there in a way that they can read it, understand it.”

Dr. Dabus adding to that. “We don’t have to data to exactly why that happens, we just know that since 2013, the incidents of stroke, meaning the number of Hispanics that suffer stroke every year is actually increasing.”

Given the urgent nature, a CDC report showed just 58% of Hispanic adults could identify symptoms of a stroke compared to other demographics.

While some say stroke is preventable, Dr. Dabus shares different things to keep an eye on.

“Taking care of blood pressure, making sure diabetes are under control, make sure cholesterol is under control.” he said “Not smoking, exercising, have a healthier lifestyle.”

He says stroke can still happen to people at any age.

“Even if you do everything correct, a stroke may still happen. So it’s important that people understand that if you’re having a stroke, or any sign that you may be having a stroke, you need to contact emergency services. Call 11 or have a loved one call 911.”

Girtler says with symptoms, any sign of stroke is urgent and requires medical attention.

“So regardless if your symptoms are very small, sometimes people could just have a facial droop, other people can have symptoms that affect weakness on like an entire side of their body, their ability to talk.”

The goal in bringing awareness to ‘Survive Stroke Week’ is to give an important reminder.

Dr. Dabus said “stroke can be treated.”

Urging everyone to seek medical help no matter the severity.

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