Looking Glass Wards - Part three

The neurosurgeon’s grim scenarios kept ringing in my ears and I yearned for prognostic clarity.  The further we ventured the more unclear the potentialities became.  Death was a tragic but discernible and largely expected outcome in Carolie’s circumstances.   

Survival from such a traumatic sequence of medical ‘events’ was far less likely and threw up unpredictable outcomes.  More than once, medical specialists told us she should be dead.  Any scenario beyond that was against the odds and unmapped.  

I was astounded by how little is known about such brain trauma and recovery.  The studies are sparse and focussed on surprisingly limited parameters.  There is clinical research on the pathology of stroke - a common cause of death and morbidity in our society - but understanding of the ‘ecology’ of stroke survival appears in its infancy.  

As a minor category of stroke, the geography of the sub-arachnoid haemorrhage landscape is barely discernible.  All of the documentation available during the journey dealt with the generic condition of ‘stroke’. 

When I later asked a neurosurgeon about therapies to investigate and maximize brain plasticity and cognitive re-alignment his reply, unsurprisingly with hindsight, was that such concerns fall outside his discipline’s recovery parameters.  They have various categories of survivor, with most remaining within the boundaries of permanent incapacity and semi-institutionalization.   

A fortunate few return home to resume a semblance of ‘normal’ life, but the prospects for complete cognitive rehabilitation are slim.   Physical rehabilitation strategies are well developed and targeted to the specific needs of stroke survivors.  Knowledge of therapies to aid cognitive recovery from brain damage is imprecise; paths to healing largely inchoate. 

To be continued....