E-mail re: bloodletting as treatment for acute stroke--delete please!

Recently, a friend of mine sent me one of those forever-circulating forward mass e-mails whose title reads "A NEEDLE CAN SAVE THE LIFE OF A STROKE PATIENT-From Chinese professor" Although I almost never read such emails, the subject line on this one caught my attention and I decided to open it.

The email starts by asking YOU to please forward the email to others so that they too can use the life-saving knowledge provided. AMAZING!! PLEASE PASS IT ON TO YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS AND BUSINESS ASSOCIATES, they write. It is about the writer's personal experience with stroke when his work supervisor, Mr.Chen Fu-Tien, developed a sudden episode of slurred speech and a "crooked mouth". The writer was able to "save his life" because she remembered the advice given to her by Ha Bu-Ting, a Chinese traditional doctor who had told her to use a needle to draw blood from all the finger tips and both ear lobes of a stroke victim until "all symptoms go away". The writer is emphatic about NOT taking the stroke victim to the hospital until he regains consciousness and becomes symptom free, because otherwise, "all the capillaries in the brain will gradually burst" on the way to the hospital. The writer, identified in the text of the e-mail as Irene Liu, writes:" Wait till the victim regains his normal state without any abnormal symptoms then take him to the hospital, otherwise, if he was taken in the ambulance in a hurry to the hospital, the bumpy trip will cause all the capillaries in his brain to burst".

Truthfully, I feel that this e-mail was probably written in good faith. However, as it is the case with many mass emails about medical topics written by people without a medical background, the information provided here should not be taken seriously. The email conveys multiple unfounded ideas about stroke, but by far the most dangerous one of all is the suggestion that people should not be taken to a hospital until all their symptoms are resolved, on the grounds that "all the capillaries in the brain will burst on the way to the hospital". This statement is untrue and totally irresponsible. When it comes to stroke every minute that you stay away from the hospital counts against you. After all, tPA, the most effective treatment available for stroke, must be given within 3 hours of the onset of stroke symptoms. Thus, even if you are into bloodletting, should you ever suspect that you or someone you know might be having a stroke, do yourself a favor and call the ambulance immediately. And if you ever receive an e-mail about bloodletting as a cure for an acute stroke, please, please, please, take it with a grain of salt. More importantly, give your people some love by refraining from clicking on the forward icon, and instead do the right thing and delete this email from your inbox.

Recommended reading:
Stroke Symptoms
Stroke Treatments
The Golden Three Hour tPA Window For Stroke Treatment