Skip to main content

Bleeding Brain


Our father was found on the morning to Ganesh Chaturti , an important Hindu festival, lying facedown on the floor.  My grandma surprised why he was on the floor and not sleeping on his bed, tried waking him up to realize that he had vomited.  

When rushed to a neighborhood hospital, they found his pulse very low, black blood coming out of his nose, and the CT-Scan showed a massive hemorrhage.   He was immediately rushed to a specialty hospital and surgery was performed by one the leading Neuro Surgeons in the city.  

Since the bleed was massive, we except that he was atleast bleeding for over four to five hours during the night.  The vomit had aspirated into his lungs causing a major infection, a big source of worry even post operation.


We learnt that the bleed in our father’s brain was an intra cerebral hemorrhage in the basal ganglia region due to hyper tension (which apparently is a main cause of a basal ganglia bleed).   Yes, he was a hypertension patient for many years and was on medication.  Either he hadn’t taken medication in the past couple of months or did not change them as they are supposed to do.

Symptoms of such bleed we later learnt were headache, nausea, vomiting and impairment of consciousness.  All this might have occurred during the night, which led to vomiting and fainting on the floor. 

This where basal ganglia is located in the brain.  Speech, motor movements, sensation and personality depend on basal ganglia region.



  



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Sri Narasipura Subbaiah Narayana Murthy

Somewhere in 2011 my good friend Rohan sent me a link to a documentary on Ayurveda .  It showcases different practitioners of Ayurveda, its  ninth part  caught my attention.  One, a patient in the film suffered from brain hemorrhage and two, the doctor (he is an indigenous healer / vaidhiyar, not a certified doctor) lived in Southern India which would make the travel not too adventurous.  I guessed the adventure part incorrectly. Sri Narasipura Subbaiah Narayana Murthy (the Doctor) lives ofcourse in Narasipura, which falls under the Shimoga district in Karnataka.  My research prior the travel showed that all one needs to do is to get to Narasipura or Shimoga and locals know the doctor's place. Our male cousin in Bangalore who is specially fond of my father agreed to accompany me.  We left to Shimoga on a Saturday since the doctor consults only on Sundays and Thursdays. Consultation begins at 7:00am, its on first come first serve basis.  I thought 5:00am would make us sufficien

Acutouch? Come Again…You mean Acupuncture?

In the first month after we got our father home, we were persistently looking for alternate treatments to help heal him.    One possibility that seemed to work, atleast in some ways was Acupuncture .    Literature available on it is a galore, so are the practicing acupuncturists.    Everyone and anyone apparently is an Acupuncturist.   The most reliable seems to be doctors trained in western medicine who are also trained in Acupuncture from China.    We found one such very reputed doctor in Chennai.    His clinic was far and highly wheel chair inaccessible.   The thought of taking our father everyday to that clinic seemed like a mini nightmare. While still on a hunt for a good Acupuncturist, serendipitously we were told of an ‘Acutouch’ doctor who was in the same area in Chennai as us.   Never to let any opportunity to slip by, we paid a visit to the Doctors home clinic.   The house located on a rather quiet street was an easy find since it had patients swarming outside the hous

Silent Conversation

Winter 2012 to Summer 2013 were our acupuncture days.   On most days our timing would match with this couple -  the husband was diagnosed with some neuro degenerative disease (not Parkinsons)  that severely reduced his speech and mobility.    They were in their late forties.  He (hence forth referred to as ‘Uncle’!)was a businessman with his sharp acumen still intact.  He apparently guided their son in taking decisions in business by mere head nods.  She was a fulltime caregiver doing her best in supporting her husband.   We swapped stories and challenges when time permitted in between the treatment.    One day we finished treatment and were waiting for the elevator at the same time.  That was probably the first time Appa and the uncle were seeing each other.  They both raised their hands to greet one another.   Appa indicated the arrival of the elevator and uncle motioned his hand signifying we take it first since it would not hold two wheelchairs.   They then waved goodbye