Friday, February 13, 2009

Stroke

The fragility of life was brought forcefully home to us today when we went to visit a friend in hospital. We had no idea that this woman who lives alone had had a stroke and had been in hospital for a week before being transferred to the National Geriatric Center in Netanya, known as Malben. Someone told us that she was there, so we went to visit her. We saw a person who was grossly reduced in capacity compared to her normal self only a few weeks ago. The right side of her body is partially paralyzed, with her right arm frozen in an awkward position, and she cannot speak, except to utter the word "completely." I know this is very strange, but she said "completely" over and over again, but never said any other word. It would be comical if it were not so tragic.
This is a lady who was married twice, has estranged children living in the US, whose second husband brought her here and she loved living here, but he then died. She was obviously well-off and able to live in comparative luxury. She was adopted by an Israeli family who included her in their family life and they found her on the floor of her flat.
She had invited us over several times and always had her dinners catered. She used to go with Naomi to the Tel Aviv Opera and depended on her to meet her at her building and take her to the meeting point to catch the taxi that took them there and back. She was a very friendly and charming person. Now she is completely incapacitated. It was a terribly depressing visit.
A stroke is caused by a blood vessel in the brain forming an embolism that then bursts giving a hemorrhage. This causes regions of the brain to become starved of blood supply and hence deficient in oxygen, a condition called ischemia. Because such strokes can occur randomly and can affect different regions of the brain randomly it is impossible to predict their outcome. Many strokes lead to paralysis of limbs and often the speaking and/or comprehension areas of the brain are affected. We have seen several such cases, once a friend was driving in Tel Aviv when her husband had a stroke, she drove directly to the hospital and saved his life, but he was paralyzed down one side, although his speaking and thinking capacity were unaffected. In another case we know there was a stroke, but only small subtle changes to the person's personality, such as finding it difficult to decide anything. Unfortunately, in the case of our friend the results are devastating. Let us hope that none of us share her fate. Life is indeed uncertain and fragile.

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