Bruschi's woes inspire new awareness

Health officials have already given the strange phenomenon a name: ''the Tedy Bruschi effect." In the two days after the New England Patriots linebacker was hospitalized with a stroke last month, Boston hospitals reported a sudden jump in people showing up at emergency rooms complaining of stroke-like symptoms such as headaches, blurred vision, or numbness on one side.

The Boston Public Health Commission, which tracks disease patterns as part of the defense against bioterrorism, saw a 25 percent increase in people ages 20 to 60 going to emergency rooms with neurological symptoms the day after Bruschi was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital on Feb. 16 amid massive media coverage. Health officials saw no evidence that the number of strokes and head injuries had increased, leading them to conclude that publicity about Bruschi had triggered the ER surge.

''When there is heightened media coverage of a particular illness . . . it is not unusual for the public to react," said Dr. John Rich, the health commission's medical director. He noted that patients reporting chest pain soared in New York City last September after President Bill Clinton underwent coronary bypass surgery. That phenomenon was dubbed ''the Clinton effect."

The actual number of people moved by ''the Bruschi effect" appears to be modest: 20 more patients than usual with neurological symptoms in ERs across the city on Feb. 17, including an additional six men, ages 20 to 49, who feared they were having a stroke. Strokes are more common in older people, but Bruschi's age -- 31 -- highlighted the fact that younger people can also have them. Exact numbers of people reporting stroke symptoms on Feb. 18 were unavailable yesterday.

Stroke specialists say the spike in awareness of ''brain attacks," as strokes are sometimes called, is good news.

''The biggest problem with stroke care is that patients don't know the signs or symptoms, so they wait at home," said Dr. Judith Hinchey, a neurologist at Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center. ''We have a treatment to get rid of a stroke, but it has to be given within three hours of the symptoms." Unfortunately, the vast majority of stroke victims don't get to the hospital in time to get the treatment, a clot-busting drug called t-PA.