My da is in hospital 8 weeks now he went from a coma state to vegitave state. We have seen alot of I'm provements we think but the doctors don't think there has been much, they just keep sayin he's still the same, even doe he's off all the machines since week 2. He is breathing on his own since he was resuscitated but was aided with oxygen while they had him sudated. His eyes are open alot the past few weeks and are moving a lot around the room lately. We feel as he is focusing sometimes but goes into trances then. His arms and legs will move especially if anything is hurting him or if you touch his face he tends to make a face or try turn his head. To us he is doing a lot now compared to 4 weeks ago.
We have been wondering if there is anything we can try do with my da to help him more as the doctors don't think there is nothing else they can do that it's just down to him to declare him self. We have been looking up so many cases like this suggestions from high dosasges of omega 3, stem cell treatment and oxygen chambers but we are really unsure how to go about it as the doctors don't think anything is worth trying.
If anybody has any advice that would be great, thanks.
Hello. I am afraid I don't know enough about this to offer advice, but perhaps you could call the Headway helpline on 0808 800 2244? I have found them very helpful.
Does he make any meaningful jestures, squeezing a hand, blinking in response to a question. I wouldn't want to build up hope but it is something that you can explore. The treatments you mention I have not come across in relation to brain injury. Brain recovery is a marathon not a sprint. The medics will give the advice to the best of their ability.
My dad's body continued for two years post his last stroke, but it wasn't a dignified existence. Now I live with the potential fate that my dad went through, and I have to admit it scares me.
We are unsure at the minute if he is tryin to respond he will open his eyes when we walk in and talk to him and he dose look at us, he is blinking a lot, sometimes it feels as if is to questions but it's not all the time. He has squeezed our hands but it was kinda a pull from the arm too so we are not sure if it's just a reaction, he has been grunting a lot lately and blowing his lips out but the doctors say it's just from all his secretions building up.
My da has a bad chest Infection which he cannot shift since he came to the hospital. The doctors have said this is there next big worry as his chest will keep gettin weaker from the antibiotics which could be life treaten, so this is why we are looking into stuff to try help his brain in anyway possible.
I'm really sorry to hear that too, it his hard looking at them like this, hopefully it isn't your fate. I can only imagine the thought of it.
Sadly chest infections are common for people when they are bed bound. Can the physios get him up to a sitting position, even if he needs support, that will help to clear his chest? If they could get him into a chair with an anti bed sore cushion at least for a few hours. It would also possibly help with his core strength and prevent long term vertigo.
If he follows you with his eyes, it is promising, he may not understand what is being said. Also his focus might be effected.
You could try, you might have already, but you could try simple yes or no questions, don't go for the typical one blink and two blinks, it might be that he fixes his gaze on you for yes, and blanks you for no. Give him time to respond, it's tempting to rephrase questions, but this ends up in like machine gun questions.
You have to think back to how a child might first learn to respond, you can adjust the complexity as appropriate.
I don't want to build up any false hope, but these are things to try.
I was a nurse before my hiccup, my dad ended up in a nursing home, not my choice. I know before he left hospital I had taught him to use a knife and fork again. In the home he lost this. Not the staff fault, just not enough staff to too many patients.
I remember a student nurse on placement there, she said that she wasn't get much out of the placement. I said just talk to the patients, she looked at me as if I was nuts as most of the patients didn't have recognisable speech. I'd hope that student ended up far more forfilled by the time she left.
But most of the patients had more to them than met the eye. One patient got fed up waiting to be fed, it was only a sandwich, but he picked it up and ate it, much to the staffs disbelief.
I found the home lacking in so many ways, but my dad's wife liked the home. I know my dad caused some mayhem just because care 20 odd year's ago was keep them clean, fed, and safe. I'd like to think care has changed now, but everytime I see a documentary, I do wonder.
I hope I have not built you up to much, but maybe given something to think about.
Yes the nurses have started putting my da into a chair for 1 to 2 hours a day the past 3 weeks, he always seems much better when we get the chance to see him sitting up in the chair he seems so more alert, I might try request for him to be in it more even when we get in for a visit. I think it's too much an effort for them to always have him in the chair as they need to keep fixing up after coughing and going forward so they just do it for the hour or two.
No I am happy with your reply as thinking of it now we do rush questions on him and don't give him much time we just get frustrated and hope he responds quick. I will take this all into mind now.
We do also believe that, that there is more to my da than the doctors say and a few stories we have heard from down the hospital are the same that the doctors predicted nothing from some patients but them making a great recovery. This has us hopeful too.
Thanks for your suggestions, I will try more out this evening and see how I get on.
My husband has an anoxic as well. When he was in his coma and the doctors had given up, I read about the treatments you mentioned. Unfortunately, the hospital wasn’t on board with allowing us to try any of them. We considered moving him but lucked out in that he came out and started improving.
I do wish we had done more range of motion and moved him around more. The hospital wouldn’t do any therapy with him so we did it on our own. Researched online and watched YouTube videos, very basic and very gentle. We did one hour session per day but I wish we would’ve been doing 3 or more. We’ve spent a lot of time battling that tightness over the last 7 months.
I wish we had started eye exercises as soon as he started tracking. Those have been the hardest muscles to get back. We’re still struggling with up. Of course, his occipital lobe was hit hard so that doesn’t help matters. 🤷♀️
We did aromatherapy, played a lot of brain activating music (again YouTube was our go to), I read to him and played his favorite music and podcasts. I have no idea if it worked but it definitely didn’t hurt and I liked having all of it going.
Good luck to your family!
That's great to hear, we also feel the doctors are giving up now and think this is the best my da will get as they say but we really think different. Even with them sayin this we cant see why they ignored us when we asked could we try differnet solutions to help my da. Some nurses that look after him do really give us a bit of hope and say keep praying he is in there, it will just be a long journey but with his bad chest infections it has us worried about time. They also recommended music for him to listin too or videos for him to watch so this is what we have been doing and we feel he is listing and watching.
The physio has shown us stretches for his legs, hips and arms which we have started and we notice his left arm is much tighter. I will look into YouTube videos also and for the activation music.
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