Any Drs/Nurses - Stroke Question

[Darcy03231]

Dh's ex-wife had a stroke 2 days ago. We live in NH, they live in NC and his ex and her husband were out in OR on vacation when it happened. The children (21 & 25) flew out to be there with her the day it happened. She had an intercranial hemmorage (sp). She had a portion of her skull removed to allow the brain to swell and is in a medically induced coma. There has been some talk of going in to do surgery to remove the clot and repair what they can, but she's not stable enough to do it yet, plus the brain is still swelling (we got this from DS this afternoon). She's also on a ventilator & oxygen.

From what I can tell from the information I'm getting by reading on-line the prognosis does not look good. Am I wrong? We haven't been asking any questions as, understandably, the kids are very upset and we've just been letting them tell us what they can. I did speak with her husband the day it happened and he didn't sound positive. We're trying to find out, realistically, if this is something she can/will recover from.

Thanks for any info you can give.

 

[belle&beast]

I am not a doc or nurse, but I am a speech pathologist and have worked in rehab with people after stroke. It sounds very serious and there are many factors that can affect recovery, however, many people do recover from strokes even when it initally looked bleak. The part of the brain that is affected- where the clot actually is- can tell you a lot about what will be affected if there is long term brain damage. For example, people with right sided weakness and loss of speech have lesions on the left side of the brain and people with lesions in the frontal lobe of the brain can have personality changes. It sounds like she is still in the critical recovery time and there won't be a lot of information until the swelling resolves and they can perform surgery and let her wake to see what her responses will be. I am sorry that your family is going through this, it is very difficult.

 

[jfranklyn]

This happened to my uncle on the golf course on his 70th birthday. He was the HEALTHIEST person I knew. He was in a coma for 5 days and they removed him from the vent and he died. You'll know soon enough if there is any chance of recovery, but it doesn't sound good from what you've described. Intracranial bleed strokes are very different from the kind everyone thinks of where your speech is affected, etc. We found out later that in a situation that takes them to this level (brain surgery, vents, etc) there is actually very few who make it through it without MAJOR brain damage, if they live at all. Sorry to not have something more positive to say.

 

[belle&beast]

Yes there are differences between an ischemic stroke and a bleed, however if it is clotted and they can remove the clot, the area of the brain affected will determine what kind of physical or cognitive limitations will exist.

 

[scottishduffy]

Former Neuro ICU nurse here,

I am so sorry for your family to be going through this right now. So she had a bleed, and is now being kept in a coma. When i had these patients they were always very sick. She has had a bleed and will have some type of damage from that, if she manages to recover. Some people did recover, but many people who had the procedure that you described done, sadly did not. Most eventually ended up being removed from life support after long hospital stays or brain swelling that lead to worse conditions.

It is really best to speak with the physicians if possible. Depending where the bleed was, if the swelling has stabilized, if she has been able to maintain her own blood pressure, or respond to stimuli. All of these things would help her. If she does recover it would take a *long* time and she would have deficits to overcome. The damage from the bleed is already done. The removal of the cranial bone is to prevent further damage from the swelling. Face it, the skull is tough... if a brain swells, it has nowhere to go. So the portion of skull being temporarily off helps.

I'm afraid I know very little about recovery, since the ones who did recover left the ICU shortly after coming off the vents. They were all still quite impaired at this point, i do not know what level of recovery is obtained. Sorry i can not be more optimistic. I wish you all the best in this difficult time.

 

[Darcy03231]

Thanks everyone for your kind thoughts. DH and I are not really optimistic at this point. I just feel so bad for the kids. Its never easy to lose a parent but they're still young (and so is she). We're just trying to be prepared for the worst. DD is a mess and I don't think her brother and step-father are telling her everything they're being told. DS has told us that the odds of her recovering with any kind of function is very slim, while DD is talking about her mom going to rehab and coming home. I think they trying to spin it as positively as they can for DD.

 

[pat fan]

I'm sorry for what your family is going through.

My DMIL had a bad stroke and was misdiagnosed of all things, put on some knock out drugs for 3 days because they said it was an inner ear problem and by the time they diagnosed her correctly, they were giving her the last rights. That said, we got her the heck out of that hospital, sent her to Mary Hitchcock in Dartmouth where they did some of the same things you are describing. I won't tell you it was easy, and she was never exactly the same, but she did recover and had quite a few years with us after that. She did have walking difficulties (used a cane) and some other issues, but we were all very grateful that we didn't lose her.

Every case is different, and again, I'm so sorry for your family.