Early Days

[JordanS123]

Hello, our brother suffered a BA three days ago, he is in his early 20's. He is being well looked after at a leading specialist unit, he is conscious but understandably very distressed and worried about both the short term and long term. No decision has been made as to wether a procedure will be performed as yet.

The questions that goes out to this community are other than giving him our emotional support, what should we be doing to improve his outcome? what questions should we ask, is there a go to list for families to ensure that we are doing everything we can?

We really appreciate any advice that you give however detailed or otherwise.

thank you.

[cat3]

Sorry to hear about your brother Jordan. Can I ask :- does BA refer to a brain aneurism ?

[JordanS123 in reply to cat3]

Yes, he has a small bleed near his brain stem

[cat3 in reply to JordanS123]

The doctors will be monitoring the bleed to see its progress. Sometimes it's preferable to let the bleed heal itself if that's a possibility. I assume your brother has had a CT or MRI scan ?

[Hidden]

Phone Headway, they will talk you through everything.

[Bradybunch35]

Good morning Jordan I'm sorry to hear about your brother it's so heartbreaking for you and your family. I think you have to take your pace from your brother, talk about funny stories and just surround him with a solid wall of love and understanding. . The specialists, you have to place your faith in them my recommendation is that they are wonderful x

[sospan]

At the moment your doctors and nurses will guide you as to what to do. However, in a few weeks when you brother has been discharged don't be surprised if you standing/sitting there and suddenly realise every one has gone ! It is sadly quite common to find that once people are no longer a "danger" that people are discharged with little or no help.

At the moment the most the most you can do is remain positive and supportive and start clearing a path for your brother to return home. By this let his employer now he is going to be off for a long time, if needs be start applying for any benefits, if necessary de-clutter the home to make it easy to move around and find things but not so much that home looks unfamiliar.

And be prepared for some changes in your brother, he has gone through a massive trauma and there will be changes to not only his physical abilities but also his personality and outlook.

Hoping the best for his recovery and ask as many questions as you want as whilst we are all amateurs we have clocked up many miles on this journey

[JordanS123]

Thank you all for your advice. The early warning about go home problems is something we can start working on now. He was given an optimistic prognosis yesterday which has lifted his spirits, we hope this is the start of a road to recovery.