A month ago Nate was hospitalized due to something called a subarachnoid hemorrhage which is when you have bleeding in your brain.
"The thing that scares me, is that when it was happening to me, I didn't know what was happening. I thought I had food poisoning," said Nate on the Elvis Duran and the Morning Show December 19th. Nate returned to the show at the beginning of this week and wanted to have his Doctor call in to explain in detail what happened to him.
Here is what Dr. Al-Mufti from Westchester Medical Center said on the phone Thursday morning:
Technically, Nate had a stroke. But not all strokes are created equally. There are two majors types of strokes, the warning signs may be a little bit different. Both types of strokes have one thing in common- patients would have major damage to their brain. So you have an ischemic stoke, or a dry stroke, where not enough blood is getting to the brain, and you have a hemorrhagic stroke, or a bleeding type of stroke, which is the type of stroke that [Nate] had, which is rather unique. In his particular stroke, Nate actually had extravasation, or pouring of blood into the subarachnoid space... The amount of blood that Nate had essentially puts him in the highest or the most severe grade, and this led to the development of severe vasospasm. Despite having had multiple safety heads, MRIs, MRAs... we couldn't determine the cause of Nate's hemorrhage. In the majority of cases, where the subarachnoid hemorrhage ideology is typically aneurysmal. But in his particular case since we couldn't identify it, more subtle causes of the hemorrhage could be the culprit... Luckily the type of hemorrhage that he had, which was very severe, it tends to have like a- once it happens it is very, very, very rare for it to happen again... Although the mortality rate of subarachnoid hemorrhage is pretty much decreased steadily over the past 3 decades, there remains a devastating conditions. Typically, 10-15 patients die before they even make it to the hospital... Mortality rate can actually be as high as 40%.
Nate's doctor then went on to explain the warning signs and what to do in case something like this happens to someone around you.
It is absolutely crucial to identify the signs and symptoms of a stroke. It is very important to BE FAST, which also happens to be the acronym. B- Balance. Does the patient have loss of balance? E- for eyes. Has the person lost vision in one or both eyes? F- for face. Is there any facial weakness or is the face drooping to one side? A- for arms. Have the patient raise both arms and see if there is a drift. S- for speech and severe headache. Ask the patient to repeat simple sentences and try to understand if the patients speech is slurred. Finally, T- for time. Time is absolutely of the essence and it is very important to call 911 immediately.