On Halloween night, my dad Larry had a stroke caused by a ruptured aneurysm in his brain. This happened at approximately 11 PM. I was playing a game at our computer when I heard my mom open their bedrooom screaming and crying at the same time. I thought she was having a severe asthma attack, so I rushed to her to see what was wrong. When I entered the bedroom I saw my mom in a hysterical state. I had never seen her like that before. I noticed my dad lying in bed, he looked like he was sleeping and snoring loudly. At first I was angry that my dad would be sleeping while my mom was so panicked. Then my mom pointed at him and cried. I went to see what was wrong with him. Seeing my dad completely unconscious and breathing so loudly was the most horrifying thing I've seen in my life. At that point I started to panic. Thankfully my brother showed up and took over. He was the one who called 911. My mother and I were too panicked to speak correctly to an operator. My mom told me to go wait outside for the ambulace. I went outside our apartment building for a minute, but I felt useless standing there so I went back in. When I came back in the room my brother just finished doing cpr on him. My dad stopped breathing, so my brother followed the operator's cpr instructions and got him breathing again. At this point the ambulance finally arrived and they took my dad to the hospital. As they took him out the door I noticed my dad's eyes opening slightly. I was relieved to see him waking from the state he was in.
At the hospital they gave him a CAT scan and saw the bleeding in his brain. They immediately gave him medicine that stopped his bleeding. About 18 hours later they did a procedure on him. They did a coiling technique where they took a long wire and put it up his arteries to his brain. The wire then puts a long platinum coil into the aneurysm, this stops the aneurysm from getting blood. I am glad they could heal him this way. The other way they would have to go through his skull to get rid of the aneurysm. The procedure went well. The next day my dad had problems breathing, so he was put on a ventilator. There is a thick fluid deep inside his lungs. My dad has always smoked a lot, so we think maybe this is smoking related. Besides his breathing my dad seems ok. His memory doesn't seem to be damaged from this. His right side was weak when he came to the ER. I think his right side is better now, I saw him move himself from one bed to another needing little help. So until he is able to make his own posts there will be no more posts on the native blog. If anyone wants to leave a message they can leave it at [email protected] Joe
My prayers for your father's recovery. A teacher at my Sun's school (and she was young, too) had a similar experience recently, and is doing quite well with no real damage that we can tell. I pray that your father experiences the same.
Posted by: The Bear Maiden | November 07, 2007 at 01:08 PM
Our prayers are with you and your family...
Posted by: Original Pechanga | November 13, 2007 at 10:06 AM