Carlos Javier Mozos’s experience with his father’s stroke: a quick reaction to know the symptoms
The importance of time in mitigating the after-effects of a stroke has been highlighted on many occasions and in many different forums. Time is money in all cases, which is why it is essential to know how to recognise the imminence of a case in order to deal with it promptly from a healthcare perspective. Carlos Javier Mozos, one of the ambassadors of the Idemticos project of the Contador Foundation, has recently experienced the importance of this reaction in his family environment.
During a recent meeting with his father, Victor Manuel, Carlos Javier began to see strange signs that he immediately associated with a possible stroke. “Thanks to the information shared by the Foundation about this pathology that I had read, I was able to react quickly when I began to see symptoms that seemed very clear to me. Thanks to this, it was possible to catch him in good time. After a few days of treatment, the after-effects have gradually disappeared or attenuated and he is practically fully recovered”.
Mozos is an example and a reference in national adapted cycling. Framed in the MC1 category, the Madrid native competes on a conventional bicycle despite the fact that due to his spinal cord injury he could compete on a handbike. On this occasion, however, his testimony is very relevant to address another of the Foundation’s founding concerns: stroke.
“My father said that he had been suffering from headaches for a couple of days. One afternoon I went by the house, we were chatting face to face, and I noticed that his facial expression was strange: his rictus was different, the right side of his face was a bit crooked. In his speech, I noticed that he spoke a little slower than normal, as my father has a tremendous facility with words. I asked him if he could feel the right side of his face well, he told me that it was difficult for him to close the right side of his lip a little and he also told me that he had noticed that he had dropped a little saliva. I didn’t even call 112, I told him straight away ‘get dressed, we’re going directly to the hospital'”.
Thus began a rapid health process that even involved a change of centre: “At the Severo Ochoa Hospital in Leganés he underwent various tests, including a brain scan in which they saw a small bleed of one centimetre. As there is no stroke unit in Leganés, he was transferred urgently to the Ramón y Cajal Hospital in Madrid. The whole process began at around half past four and by 9.30 p.m. he was admitted to the Ramón y Cajal”, explains Mozos. “My father’s blood pressure had been higher than normal for some time, which is a symptom of a possible stroke, and he had been having headaches that came and went for some time. Fortunately, he is now well recovered,” he says. A speedy recovery, Víctor Manuel.
