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Summary
- Short prayers follow a stroke from the ambulance and the scans through lost speech, a weak side, slow progress, low spirits and the return home, with prayers the patient can say and one for caregivers.
- Signs of a stroke include a drooping face, a weak arm and slurred speech; call 911 (US), 999 (UK) or 103 or 112 (Russia) at once, even if the signs pass.
- Traditional prayers come from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (“A Prayer for Recovery”) and the Orthodox service of Holy Unction in Hapgood’s 1906 translation.
- The Gospels record Jesus healing a paralyzed man carried by four friends (Mark 2) and a man with “an impediment in his speech” (Mark 7); Peter healed Aeneas, bedridden eight years (Acts 9).
- Catholics ask the prayers of St. Andrew Avellino, who the Catholic Encyclopedia says was “stricken with apoplexy” at Mass in 1608; his link to stroke patients is popular devotion.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Psalm 46:1; 73:26; 77:4; Isaiah 40:31; Mark 2:3–5, 11; 7:32–35; Acts 9:33–34; Romans 8:26; Galatians 6:9; Philippians 4:7; Hebrews 12:12; James 1:5). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. The Order for the Visitation of the Sick, “A Prayer for Recovery,” p. 315. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. The Office of Holy Unction, pp. 336–337. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997. Paragraphs 1514–1516. https://www.vatican.va/content/catechism/en/part_two/section_two/chapter_two/article_5/ii_who_receives_and_who_administers_this_sacrament.html
- Ott, Michael. “St. Andrew Avellino.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01472b.htm
- England, John. The Garden of the Soul, enlarged edition. New York: D. & J. Sadlier, 1871. Calendar, November. https://archive.org/details/GardenOfTheSoul1871
- Engelhardt, Eliasz. “Apoplexy, cerebrovascular disease, and stroke: Historical evolution of terms and definitions.” Dementia & Neuropsychologia 11, no. 4 (2017). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5770005/
- NHS. “Stroke,” “Symptoms of a stroke” and “Recovering from a stroke.” https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stroke/
- NHS. “Aphasia.” https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/aphasia/
- American Stroke Association. “Stroke Symptoms and Warning Signs.” https://www.stroke.org/en/about-stroke/stroke-symptoms
- Stroke Association. “Stroke Support Helpline.” https://www.stroke.org.uk/stroke/support/helpline
- Госуслуги. “Экстренная служба 112” (numbers 103 and 112). https://www.gosuslugi.ru/newsearch/ekstrennaya-sluzhba
