Sixty-eight-year-old Jim was having breakfast with his wife. Suddenly he dropped his cup of tea. His wife noticed that the right side of his mouth was drooping and when he tried to speak, his words were slurred and made no sense. He tried to stand up but then collapsed. His wife dialled 999.
The hospital doctor noticed immediately that Jim was unable to move his right arm and leg, and that his speech was abnormal — he couldn’t find the right words. When shown a pen he called it a stick, when shown a watch, he couldn’t name it, but he could say it was for telling the time. The doctor arranged a brain CT scan, which produces detailed cross-sectional pictures of the brain. The scan showed a blood clot blocking one of the major blood vessels on the left side of Jim’s brain. Jim had had a stroke.
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