Every day I see patients who have had strokes. Some strokes are old, others new. Some patients have little difficulty or disability, and have returned to their usual activities. Others will never return to their previous level of function.
Some time ago I wrote about a patient who had a stroke which caused mild weakness. She recovered fully with physical therapy. Several months later she had a second stroke. That one was more serious. Her weakness was worse and she had trouble speaking. Following her discharge from the hospital she saw her primary physician and neurologist for clearance to start physical therapy. Unfortunately, days before her initial physical therapy evaluation she suffered another stroke. This one was devastating.
First she experienced trouble speaking and severe weakness in all her extremities. Then she lost consciousness. She was taken to the emergency department by ambulance. She was intubated and placed on a ventilator. She slowly woke up over several days. This made her family hopeful. But it was clear from her brain MRI and her multiple medical problems that she would never recover.
She was eventually able to make it clear to her family that she wanted no feeding tubes or breathing tubes. She didn’t want to be resuscitated if her heart and/or breathing stopped. She died a few months later.
While this patient was alive I spent a lot of time with her family members. They wanted to know why these things had happened. It’s not possible to say exactly why a stroke happens, but we do know the major risk factors. And we know that 80% of strokes are preventable. A stroke is not what you want for yourself or a loved one, so do everything you can to prevent a stroke fromm happening. Follow the 10 Steps. Start today!
