Stroke
What is a stroke?
Our brains are made up of millions of tiny cells. The cells need blood to stay alive. Blood is carried round your body in tubes called vessels. A stroke happens when a blood clot blocks a blood vessel, or when a blood vessel breaks so that blood stops going to a part of the brain, and the brain cells in that part of the brain die. If the person gets to hospital quickly enough, fewer brain cells may die.
When brain cells die, the bits of the body that were controlled by those cells do not receive the right signals and can stop working. For example, someone who has a stroke that only stops blood flowing to one part of the brain, may feel some small changes like weakness in an arm or a leg. Someone who has a larger stroke may be left paralysed on one side of their body (paralysed means not being able to move), or they may have trouble speaking or understanding what other people are saying. Some people get very down or act strangely after a stroke.
