Thread: Aneurysms
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Old 11-06-2007, 11:47 PM   #3
blankall
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Well my dad is a neurologist. This is his specialty. Also, I worked in a stroke research lab. Basically, the thing is this. Assuming bleading has stopped, he may have a chance at recovery. Next it depends on the extent of the bleading and the size of the area damaged. Basically what happens once the bleading stops is a process called necrosis. Here the immune system essentially carves out all the tissue in the brain it believes to be damaged. So it will often carve out tissue surrounding the site even though it is not damaged or tissue that has merely been bled into.

On top of this there may be other complications. Depending on where the rupture happened it could disrupt blood flow to major parts of the brain, essentially resulting in stroke. Another problem is possible blood clotting. If this happens they would have to adminster tissue plasminogen activator (TPA), which destroys clots, but also increases bleeding by thinning the blood.

As for his chances. No way to tell. The brain is a complicated thing. If he is in a coma, odds are he already has some kind of extensive damage. All really depends on where the damage is. Whether he survives or his quality of life is anything to speak of once if he does regain consciousness depends on a lot of different factors.

That being said some people recover from these things w/ no to little damage, so there is always hope. I haven't seen the exact case so there is no way to comment any further. Honestly all I can say is these things happen and I hope for you and your gfriends sake her father is one of the lucky ones.
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