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Comment by user_7832 | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone know how dangerous a stroke is at his age? Side note, but why do older people have strokes so more often? Young people have blood clots too.

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I had a TIA(mini-stroke) a few years ago in my early 20s.

From what I understand: strokes are not more dangerous with age, but are much more likely to happen as you age.

I was told that the the risk factor is a matter of how quickly the stroke is identified and how quickly you are able to receive medical care after the onset. Faster response == less time for brain matter to die due lack of blood.

If someone you know is showing signs of a stroke (see https://www.cdc.gov/stroke/signs_symptoms.htm), get them to the hospital right away. Time is of the essence. Once you're there, don't let overworked personnel ignore them. My mother recently had a stroke. She had absolutely clear, textbook symptoms. She got to the hospital by ambulance right away, but busy doctors and nurses sent her home after two days, saying that she hadn't had a stroke because it didn't show up on an MRI. That night, she fell, broke her pelvis, and returned to the hospital. She waited over twenty hours to see a neurologist, who immediately recognized the signs, and declared that she had had a stroke. True treatment only began then. A second MRI confirmed that diagnosis.

Triage isn't always accurate, especially in overworked emergency rooms.

Wow, that sounds like third-world kind of treatment. I would consider suing. Sorry that your mom had to go through this.

>that sounds like third-world kind of treatment

You wish you had third-world medical treatment, though.

Having been many times to hospitals in several 1st world countries AND several 3rd world countries, I do not find the former much better than the latter and the 10x-100x price markup is hard to ignore.

Ya, I'm guessing you would actually get better care in a country like Thailand, the Phillippinnes, India, or China. It might make more sense to retire in a LCOL place with good affordable healthcare rather than rely on Medicare. Heck, just get a good policy with evac to the USA if anything major happens you can't handle out of pocket (and at that point, it is probably cancer or something anyways). As I get older, it becomes more appealing to consider.

I had private insurance in China and it was wonderful. I could get an appointment quickly for whatever, the waiting room was really plushy, the deductibles were like 100-400 kuai, mostly the former. The biggest problem is that private insurance in China has a payout limit (around $100k/year for the policy Microsoft gave me)...which...well...whatever.

Hospitals in Thailand are actually pretty awesome. I received surgery in Thailand and spent a week in the hospital recovering.

The hospital was amazing and like nothing I’ve seen in Western Europe. Granted it was a private hospital but the people there were almost uniformly Thai.

Thailand is surprisingly economically strong. I don’t think it’s a third world country.

Thailand is upper middle income like Brazil, China, and Mexico. Thailand has see, to have fallen into the middle income trap with Brazil, however.

Fully agree, the quality of private healthcare in the third-world for common conditions and ailments could be even higher than the first. If they are not being stingy with treatment because everything costs a lot and they're understaffed, then they are thinking what to overtreat because it'll bring in the money. Health of course, is just a secondary concern

PS: Btw Rulopotamus-related? (he was a minor celebrity, loved professor in a certain college in some place of this galaxy)

Poor triage and dealing with a loved one suffering the consequences of having been placed on the wrong assembly line seem like very relatable parts of American health care.

> Wow, that sounds like third-world kind of treatment.

My first thought was that sounded exactly like here in Canada.

Sadly, I was going to say the same thing. I wouldn't even blink an eye if someone local told me this story. I've heard way worse, and I don't know anyone who doesn't have at least one story like this.

As you get older your arteries gradually narrow, a process made even more severe by the buildups of plaque. This is all accelerated by obesity, lack of exercise, and so on. Aging, high blood pressure, and various other factors also causes arteries to weaken, making a rupture even more likely.

All of this is part of the reason I think the 'search for the pill/shot of immortality' in modern times is little different than the search for the pool of immortality in ancient times. Everything breaks down over time and so to solve this, we'd need to fix everything, when we yet struggle to truly fix even a single thing.

Not a doctor but plenty of stroke-suffering family members

Strokes at any age are incredibly dangerous

Most strokes occur at advanced age because circulation decreases (at least that’s my understanding)

There are also hemorrhagic strokes aka: brain bleeds. I had a non-traumatic hemorrhagic stroke at 40. That fuckin sucked. It still sucks 2 years later, but I’m so grateful for where I’m at. Losing one’s ability to speak coherently, at midlife, is a stark reminder…everyone is only temporarily abled.

Disabled is the only minority group you can join by accident

> Side note, but why do older people have strokes so more often?

In short, your circulatory system gets old and rusty and either bursts or gets blocked. If you manage to avoid CVD, heart disease, and cancer then a stroke is the next problem.

Aside from the risk of age, he had documented memory issues after his airplane crash in 1981, i don't know if that makes him more or less vulnerable during a stroke, but I'd be worried for sure.

I think cause is a big predictor.

If he hit his head/had trauma to his kneck, that's one thing. Clogged arteries are another.

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