SLAPPED BY A GHOST!

It was a cold night, the cloud was as dark as Diana and had assembled over us to graciously bless us with rain. I had finished two wraps of fufu served with vegetable soup specially prepared by my beautiful wife. Such meals are usually suspicious as a request follows the delicacy at the end of the meal. Here she comes with the usual preamble, calling me pet names, sat on my laps, kissed me deeply and began to unbutton my shirt while curdling my hair. Suddenly there was a bang on the door with a feminine voice and a tone characterised by tension and confusion. I realised I was dreaming and jumped out of the bed as if I was pricked with a needle,my heart racing to escape a perceived danger while attempting to leave my sluggish body behind. I held my chest as though I was reciting my national anthem and as though to prevent my heart from leaving my body. It was the nurse on evening duty. She had come to announce an emergency case which had presented to the hospital. What's the case summary? I asked. I don't understand, she replied while scratching her hair and body. What don't you understand? I asked again. She stammered and answered, I heard he was slapped by a ghost! My thought drifted away momentarily as though a wave had blown across it to Umuahia, the capital city of Abia where sometime ago it was widely reported that ghosts slapped people to death in a popular brothel and not long after that a rumor went round that a sitting governor was also slapped by a ghost. My bizarre thoughts were aborted by a call from the nurse, the calibre of the voice this time, masculine. I looked at her just to see that her focus was below my belt, at a prominent figure which had responded to my romantic dream. I cleared my throat and urged her to go ahead while I pick some instruments. It took some effort to relax myself before proceeding to the emergency unit, to avoid further embarrassment. On getting to the emergency room, an elderly man with a unilateral dysmorphic face (hahaha, no offence, it means half part of his face was disfigured) as seen in the above picture, with drooling of saliva and dysphonia, altered consciousness and unable to raise the limbs of the affected side. His blood pressure was 220/150 mmHg with a high volume pulse.
His breakfast is a packet of cigarettes which he enjoys with whisky. He would go out of his way to make them readily available including borrowing. He owed Mr. Amanaha the sum of #5000 before his demise following a fatal motor accident. Adindu went outside the house to urinate at about 9.30pm that same night when he fell to the ground with above symptoms. They therefore concluded the late Mr. Amanaha attacked him on account of his indebtedness.

STROKE (CEREBROVASCULAR ACCIDENT) 

When blood fails to get to some parts of the brain either due to blockage by a clot (thrombus) or due to rupture of fragile blood vessel (s) (hemorrhage), the nerves fail to function. This is known as stroke.
Risk Factors for stroke 
Modifiable factors

• Heavy Alcoholism
• Moderate/Severe Hypertension 
• Cigarette smoking 
• Uncontrolled Diabetes 
• Hyperlipidemia
• Polycythemia 
• Estrogen containing drugs

Non-Modifiable factors 

• Gender 
• Race
• Age
• Previous History
• Hereditary 
• High Fibrinogen

 The common signs and symptoms are contained in the history.
Prognosis

• 1/5 of affected persons die from it
• 4/5 of affected persons survive but 1/2 of these suffer physical disability 

Endeavor to check your blood pressure regularly if you are 40years and above. 
Thank you for reading!