In his latest video, hospitalist-turned-rapper ZDoggMD shifts his focus to a personal issue: stroke awareness.
ZDoggMD — whose real name is Zubin Damania, MD — lost both of his grandmothers to strokes and hopes the video will encourage others to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.
A parody of The Weeknd's "Can't Feel My Face," the video zeroes in on what the symptoms of a stroke are. "I can't feel my face, my tongue won't move. Am I stroking? Am I stroking?" ZDoggMD sings.
Later in the song, he explicitly lists the signs of a stroke: "Facial droop, arm weakness, speech slurry. Recognize these signs could mean stroke," he croons. "Though this song is trying to be funny, saving brain cells isn't a joke."
In addition to highlighting common stroke symptoms throughout the song, ZDoggMD uses his lyrics to indicate the importance of calling 911 when someone has a stroke. "I'm wishing you'd hurry about it. Lift my arm up and it drifts down," he sings. "We both know I can't talk about it. So it's up to you, girl, to call 911, ooh," he croons.
In a short blog post about the video, ZDoggMD cites a study from Los Angeles-based UCLA Medical Center which claims 73 percent of individuals aged 45 and under wouldn't seek attention for stroke symptoms. "[I]f you can't recognize the symptoms [of stroke] in yourself, what hope do you have of recognizing and acting on the symptoms in someone else?"