These are two dangerous, rapidly progressing diseases. If stroke is not recognized and treated promptly, the patient's brain will lack oxygen, leading to decreased consciousness, coma, and death. Myocardial infarction can cause circulatory arrest, respiratory arrest, and sudden death.

Common signs in people with stroke are severe headache, loss of balance, unsteady walking, facial distortion on one side, difficulty speaking, slurred speech, numbness on one side of the body, inability to raise both arms at the same time, etc.

Patients with myocardial infarction and stroke, if given first aid quickly and properly, will minimize the risk of complications and death.

When a person unfortunately suffers a stroke, just one second delay can cause 32,000 brain cells to die, after 59 seconds the number of damaged brain cells can reach 1.9 million cells. Therefore, experts recommend that the first 3-6 hours is the golden time to rescue stroke patients, helping to limit disability, coma or even death.

For people with myocardial infarction, typical symptoms are chest pain and tightness. However, many patients will only have vague symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue, jaw stiffness, shoulder pain, back pain, abdominal pain, epigastric pain, abdominal pain, etc.

Even some cases of silent myocardial infarction have no symptoms, requiring in-depth examination for timely treatment. If blood flow is not restored quickly, acute myocardial infarction can cause permanent damage to the heart muscle and cause death.

When detecting signs of stroke or heart attack in a patient, relatives need to quickly contact the emergency hotline 115 or the hospital to have a specialized support team come to the patient's home to take them to the emergency room.

You should contact a medical facility that can treat intravenous thrombolysis and remove blood clots with instruments. Avoid going to places that do not have the facilities to handle the treatment because it will waste time for emergency treatment.

While waiting for the medical team, the stroke patient should loosen their clothes and accessories and lie down at a 30-45 degree angle to rest.

Then, the patient can be instructed to breathe slowly and evenly, or wrap a clean towel around a finger to remove phlegm and saliva from the throat if the patient shows signs of wheezing and increased phlegm secretion.

Never feed the patient without permission as this can cause choking. If the patient stops breathing and loses consciousness, the heart may have stopped beating and external cardiac massage should be performed.

In case the patient has a myocardial infarction and is unconscious, it is necessary to perform external chest compressions by kneeling on the left knee, placing both hands on the chest in the middle of the sternum, then using enough force, pressing down about 2/3 of the depth of the chest (about 3 - 5cm) and then loosening the hands.

After performing every 15 chest compressions, give 2 mouth-to-mouth resuscitations. Repeat this action continuously 100 - 120 times/minute until the ambulance arrives. Correct chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation are the most important steps to save the patient's life while waiting for medical staff to arrive.

MSc. Vo Anh Minh, Deputy Head of Interventional Cardiology Department, Tam Anh General Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, said that for people with myocardial infarction, for every minute of delay, the patient loses 10% of the chance of being saved.

Proper and timely emergency care helps preserve the patient's vital functions until access to professional medical services.

Patients will survive or have few sequelae if first aid is given promptly and properly. Therefore, time is of the essence in first aid, it is the patient's life.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Health , each year Vietnam has about 200,000 stroke cases, but only 33% of cases arrive at the hospital within the first 6 hours, of which only 14% of patients admitted to the emergency room receive reperfusion treatment or intravenous thrombolytic drugs, or use of arterial bypass devices.

At the Emergency Department of this Hospital in July 2024, on average, the department received 100 - 110 emergency cases per day, including many cases of myocardial infarction and stroke.

Dr. Hong Van In, Deputy Head of the Hospital's Emergency Department, said that in reality, many cases are brought to the hospital late, missing the "golden hour" period, partly due to geographical factors (far from medical facilities), or lack of basic first aid knowledge.

According to the Ministry of Health's summary report on the planning of the healthcare network for the period 2021 - 2030 and vision to 2050, some provinces have a distance of 4-5 hours by car to the nearest central hospital, while some provinces have a distance of 10-11 hours. Therefore, on-site emergency care is extremely necessary, increasing the patient's chance of survival.

In Ho Chi Minh City, the 115 emergency network has 41 satellite emergency stations located at hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City and Thu Duc City, equipped with modern ambulances with full equipment and highly specialized personnel, ready to perform first aid at the scene, at the patient's home with professional quality equivalent to that at the hospital for many situations;

Especially the emergency stroke treatment plan at home for patients who have difficulty moving or are far from hospitals to save the maximum golden time of this dangerous condition.

The development of an out-of-hospital emergency system helps patients access medical care quickly, helping to reduce the level of disability and risk of death for patients, especially in cases of dangerous, rapidly progressing diseases. Thereby reducing the burden of illness and finances.

According to Dr. Hong Van In, to implement effectively, it is necessary to develop in parallel the first aid skills of the people and the out-of-hospital emergency system of medical facilities.

Effective outpatient emergency care must ensure two factors: timeliness and correctness. Patients transported by ambulance will be performed paraclinical techniques and emergency treatment on the vehicle, at the same time information is sent to the hospital and there is preparation in advance, improving the chance of survival.

Myocardial infarction progresses rapidly, so emergency treatment is crucial to the patient's survival, helping to maintain a certain amount of circulation to provide enough blood to organs such as the brain so that they are not damaged too much, leading to serious sequelae.

Heart attacks and strokes can be fatal if not treated promptly. Learning basic first aid techniques and contacting a medical facility early will help increase the patient's chances of survival.