Posted on 06/16/2002 9:39:11 AM PDT by gwmoore
I would appreciate the prayers of all FReepers and their families for my father, Mr. Charles R. Moore, who suffered a stroke or a reasonable facsimile therof, last Friday (this is a ball park figure, as I believe that the event happened Tuesday a week ago.
Dad is 85, and has been an active person his whole life, and was active until this happened. He is now 99% aphasic, and has hemiplegia on his right side. His physician who is handling the case is kind of the type of physician who, in my opinon, has not picked up a medical text nor followed the literature since He recieved his MD.
My Dad is being given a week of rehab,which, frankly, I feel is a little premature in coming. At that time, "decisions" (the MD's word) will have to be made as to what will happen next. I would like to make statements about the physician who is in charge of the case, but I don't feel like being the recipient of litigation regarding his qualifications. I will however say that my general opinion is that of things associated with ducks.
I would appreciate the prayers of FReepers and lurkers for an improvement, but, as we all know, such things are best left for our Savior and Great Physician.
Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts during his time of need.
Thanks also, for all the FReepers who are Keeping the Faith for Freedom and serving our Country at home and overseas.
May God bless you all
Greg Moore
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. (1 Peter 5:10)
And Greg, I have been on many medical boards online. You cannot be sue'd for giving your opinion of your Phsysicians care (rather lack of ) for your Dad. You have a right to express your feelings, and perhaps to even warn others. Unless someone can site me case law,.. I think you have a right to say what you want. But what do I know,.. maybe someone who is more learned than I can answer this. But regardless,.. the most important thing is your Dad. And prayers are going out for him right now.
Can you get a second opinion? Can't you request that through the Doctor treating him? Any doctor worth his salt, won't mind allowing you that much.
Prayers to our LOVING Father for Charles!!
I hope you'll heed all the advice you are getting here. You will feel terrible if things don't go well for him, and will blame yourself -- even if there is no cause for blame. Go with your instincts and remember the 'squeaking wheel'.
By making nerves signal muscles, tiny devices save muscles from shrinkage and atrophy. Find out more, Wednesday 5/1 at 5:30 p.m. Eastern on 'Tech Live.'
By Marc Levenson, Tech Live
May 1, 2002
Hope for stroke victims
Tiny electronic stimulators the size of a mosquito may help stroke patients regain the use of weak or paralyzed limbs. Tonight's "Tech Live" takes a look at experimental implants called bions.
The devices, developed at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, have helped patients like Mildred Bell, a 72-year-old Canadian woman who suffered a debilitating stroke two years ago that paralyzed her left arm and leg. She credits the implant's pulses with exercising her muscles and helping her get on her feet and back to a normal life.
"I walk with a walker now and with a cane and now I'm starting to walk with neither one of those, so I feel I've really made great progress," she said.
Part of Bell's progress comes from conventional physical therapy. But the implant allows her muscles to rebuild strength the stroke took away. She uses a remote control harness strapped around her shoulder to activate the bion three times a day for 25 minutes at a time.
The bion causes Bell's nerves to signal muscles the way her brain used to signal them before the stroke interfered with her brain's communication system.
Dr. Gerald Loeb, the bion's principal investigator and a USC biomedical engineer, said he feels bions can save muscles from shrinkage and atrophy.
"If you can't exercise your muscles at all, they lose strength, they lose the ability to contract and to protect the joints in many cases," Loeb said.
USC manufactures glass-enclosed bions for clinical trials, like the one Bell enrolled for in Kingston, Ontario. Those glass-enclosed bions are intended only to protect endangered muscles. But researchers hope to build a new generation of bions that might restore function to paralyzed hands, arms, and legs. To do that, researchers such as USC biomedical engineer Rahman Davoodi study computer simulations of moving human limbs.
The research helps them understand just how much electrical stimulation a muscle or nerve needs to make a hand grip or a leg stand. Too little or too much could be counterproductive or even dangerous.
"We are basically relieving the patients from the testing phase by using computer models," Davoodi said.
Bions that would allow quadriplegics like Christoper Reeve to walk again are considered years away, if ever even practical at all. But for helping patients overcome some limited forms of paralysis, Loeb says he thinks bions may in fact provide the missing link.
The bions, Loeb said, can help "get them to do things that they can't do for themselves."
For now, bions remain experimental and targeted for a limited purpose: rebuilding a muscle's strength so arm bones don't slip and dislocate or leg muscles don't shrink into uselessness. That's a potential advantage for an estimated 600,000 people who suffer strokes every year, a quarter of whom don't survive. Within just a few years, the Food and Drug Administration could clear bions as another option for stroke victims' rehabilitation.
The bion, along with physical therapy, now allows Bell to clench her fist and raise her arm. She said she enjoys the stimulator's sensation.
"You can feel it beating," she said. "I can feel the muscle beating.... It's actually rather pleasurable, because you know that it's helping you."
Also includes:
· Hope for Parkinson's Sufferers
· Hope for Back-Pain Sufferers
· Strapping on a Lifesaver
· Hope for Diabetes Victims
Prayers on the way...
Stroke is a tough bullet to be sure, but there is hope. My Mother suffered a similar stroke plus a cranial bleed, almost a year and a half ago. While she's nowhere near 100% and may never be, she is still with us, and gets a little better each day.
That they have him set for rehab so soon seems to me is a good sign, and they will use it to evaluate how much damage was done and if he is ready for more rehab. If not, make sure they give him more time to recover and build up his strength. The sooner he is able, the better though.
As for doctors, we have seen both good and bad ones. It could be the doctor is OK, but has a poor bedside mannor. Ask lots of questions. Get answers. Check out what he tells you. The hardest words for a doctor to tell you are "I don't know" and the most truthful comment I have ever heard is that "Dead doctors don't lie".
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