{"id":403108,"date":"2018-02-21T06:31:46","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T06:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=403108"},"modified":"2018-02-21T09:55:08","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T09:55:08","slug":"facetime-chat-saves-womans-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=403108","title":{"rendered":"FaceTime chat ‘saves woman’s life’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman who had a stroke while on a FaceTime video call with her sister, says the technology saved her life.<\/p>\n

Opokua Kwapong, who lives alone in New York, was on a call with her sister, Adumea Sapong, in Manchester, when Mrs Sapong noticed that her elder sibling “didn’t look right”.<\/p>\n

She raised the alarm after she also noticed her sister’s voice was slurred.<\/p>\n

Ms Kwapong said she had not realised how serious the situation was.<\/p>\n

The 58-year-old had woken from an afternoon nap when Mrs Sapong had called her on FaceTime, a video calling feature on iPhones.<\/p>\n

Ms Kwapong said: “My sister looked at me and said she could see that my face didn’t look right.<\/p>\n

“She also said that I was slurring my words, but I thought she was just fussing and I didn’t believe her.”<\/p>\n

Mrs Sapong said: “When I called Opokua she said that she’d not been feeling well and had been feeling tired and was also having some difficulty walking.<\/p>\n

“I said, ‘Perhaps you need to take some aspirin.’ She tried to pick up a glass of water and wasn’t able to. Then I noticed on the FaceTime video call that her face was drooping. I told her she needed to hang up and immediately see a doctor.<\/p>\n

“She thought I was making a fuss so I then conferenced in one of my other sisters, who is a doctor, and she could hear her speaking and could also tell that her speech was slurred. We both told her to call for help straightaway.”<\/p>\n

Ms Kwapong hung up the call and then dialled 911.<\/p>\n

Following hospital scans, Ms Kwapong was diagnosed as having had a clot on the brain.<\/p>\n

The stroke has left her paralysed on her left side.<\/p>\n

Ms Kwapong, who works as a food scientist, said: “There is no doubt that FaceTime saved my life.<\/p>\n

“If my sister had not noticed that something was not right, then things could have been so different.<\/p>\n

\"FacetimeImage\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/figure>\n

“Not only did technology save my life, it now also allows me to live my life.<\/p>\n

“I rely a lot on video conferencing as I’m not able to travel as much as I did previously for my work.”<\/p>\n

Mrs Sapong said: “You hear a lot of negative stories about the internet and technology, but I think this is an example of how technology can be a force for good.<\/p>\n

“If it had not been for FaceTime, then we would be having a very different conversation right now.”<\/p>\n

Esmee Russell, head of prevention and campaigns at the Stroke Association, said: “A stroke can happen to anyone, at any age, at any time – that’s why it’s so important that people know to act fast: it could save a life.”<\/p>\n

Strokes happen when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off by a clot (known as an ischaemic stroke), or damaged by a bleed that causes brain cells in the affected area to die (known as a haemorrhagic stroke).<\/p>\n

The Fast test<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • F<\/strong>acial weakness – Can the person smile? Has their mouth or eye drooped?<\/li>\n
  • A<\/strong>rm weakness – Can the person raise both arms?<\/li>\n
  • S<\/strong>peech problems – Can the person speak clearly and understand what you say?<\/li>\n
  • T<\/strong>ime to call 999 – If you see any one of these signs, seek immediate medical attention.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    –<\/p>\n

    Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A woman who had a stroke while on a FaceTime video call with her sister, says the technology saved her life. Opokua Kwapong, who lives alone in New York, was on a call with her sister, Adumea Sapong, in Manchester, when Mrs Sapong noticed that her elder sibling “didn’t look right”. She raised the alarm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":403111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[17245],"class_list":["post-403108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-facetime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=403108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/403111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=403108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=403108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=403108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}