Where does resilience come from?
In my last neurology posting I had this female patient, a young patient, who came with complete right sided hemiplegia. In normal words, complete right sided paralysis. She was in the hospital getting all the treatment that there is for the stroke. She seemed to be improving gradually. Physiotherapy was initiated and she started regaining some function at the end of almost a month and a half. Everyone was planning to discharge her. That was when i picked up the case. Two days after i joined neurology, her condition worsened. Everything was the same. It was decided that a new MRI would be advisable. So we got it done. She had developed a second infarction. A second ‘brain’ attack (similar to a heart attack). We intensified the nursing care and the physiotherapy. The additional tests that we did showed a blockage, a clot, at a supplying artery. This clot was acting like an icecap in the approaching summers. It was slowing breaking, piece by piece, sending small icebergs into the system ahead. These icebergs were blocking the arteries when sizable enough and thereby sinking the Titanic wherever they got stuck.
The patient’s treatment was started again in view of the new findings. She was now a critical case. The number of possible complications in such cases is high. And once complicated, the treatment becomes much tougher. The management in order to avoid the complications, though simple, are very tedious for the patient in a poor general health. The physiotherapy, the lateral position nursing, the feeding by the naso-gastric tube, no oral intake at all, everything was easy to prescribe and easy to follow. But for a patient who has been in the hospital for two months already on a similar regimen before, the things would be cumbersome. And she had no means of telling us her problems anymore.
She recovered slowly again. While I was in the neurology posting, I could follow her progress daily. She seemed to be progressing again. Very slowly she was able to start her limbs move. Her voice was still gone, but soon she was able to indicate to us that she was uncomfortable. And then I was gone. The area was hit by a disease at epidemic proportions, and I was pulled into the emergency managing those patients. I did go and follow up her progress occasionally but not as frequently as I would have liked to. Her progress was slow and steady.
And then finally four months from the day she suffered her second stroke, she ‘walked’ out of the hospital, with a perfectly normal smile on her face.
What gave her the energy to face an ordeal like this? What told her to keep persisting and keep on trying her best to get better? How many of us could have really suffered such a fate and not have become depressed, especially on being afflicted by a second stroke?
What was it that helped her persevere? Her personal strength? Our inspiring talk? Her family? The hospital staff and their care? The fact that this patient was a part of the religious sect and was therefore probably supported by the divine intervention?
In my last neurology posting I had this female patient, a young patient, who came with complete right sided hemiplegia. In normal words, complete right sided paralysis. She was in the hospital getting all the treatment that there is for the stroke. She seemed to be improving gradually. Physiotherapy was initiated and she started regaining some function at the end of almost a month and a half. Everyone was planning to discharge her. That was when i picked up the case. Two days after i joined neurology, her condition worsened. Everything was the same. It was decided that a new MRI would be advisable. So we got it done. She had developed a second infarction. A second ‘brain’ attack (similar to a heart attack). We intensified the nursing care and the physiotherapy. The additional tests that we did showed a blockage, a clot, at a supplying artery. This clot was acting like an icecap in the approaching summers. It was slowing breaking, piece by piece, sending small icebergs into the system ahead. These icebergs were blocking the arteries when sizable enough and thereby sinking the Titanic wherever they got stuck.
The patient’s treatment was started again in view of the new findings. She was now a critical case. The number of possible complications in such cases is high. And once complicated, the treatment becomes much tougher. The management in order to avoid the complications, though simple, are very tedious for the patient in a poor general health. The physiotherapy, the lateral position nursing, the feeding by the naso-gastric tube, no oral intake at all, everything was easy to prescribe and easy to follow. But for a patient who has been in the hospital for two months already on a similar regimen before, the things would be cumbersome. And she had no means of telling us her problems anymore.
She recovered slowly again. While I was in the neurology posting, I could follow her progress daily. She seemed to be progressing again. Very slowly she was able to start her limbs move. Her voice was still gone, but soon she was able to indicate to us that she was uncomfortable. And then I was gone. The area was hit by a disease at epidemic proportions, and I was pulled into the emergency managing those patients. I did go and follow up her progress occasionally but not as frequently as I would have liked to. Her progress was slow and steady.
And then finally four months from the day she suffered her second stroke, she ‘walked’ out of the hospital, with a perfectly normal smile on her face.
What gave her the energy to face an ordeal like this? What told her to keep persisting and keep on trying her best to get better? How many of us could have really suffered such a fate and not have become depressed, especially on being afflicted by a second stroke?
What was it that helped her persevere? Her personal strength? Our inspiring talk? Her family? The hospital staff and their care? The fact that this patient was a part of the religious sect and was therefore probably supported by the divine intervention?
