Brain Attack: Slow Road to Recovery: Practice, Perseverance at Home
After a month in acute rehab, Jim Krakowsky returns home to continue his recovery efforts. The key to rehabilitation in patients is to practice and practice those things you want to do, even though progress at times seems painfully slow. For the Kra...
Brain Attack: Slow Road to Recovery: Jim and Mary Krakowski's Journey
Five months ago Jim Krakowski experienced a cerebral hemorrhage as he was getting ready for work. No one was home at the time so he lay helpless for hours until his wife, a nurse, returned from work. The hemorrhage was quite large and deep, and the ...
Brain Attack: Slow Road to Recovery: Treadmill Therapy
With virtually no feeling or voluntary movement on his right side, Jim is placed in a climbing harness over a treadmill, the motion of right leg and foot manipulated by the therapist. There is noticeable improvement by the end of just one session. S...
Brain Attack: Story of Karen: First Procedures, The
In the past, before doctors had the means to check the damaging effects of a clot, stroke victims were not considered a priority by paramedics or emergency personnel. Within minutes of her arrival at the hospital by ambulance, Karen was given an MRI...
Brain Attack: Story of Karen: Childbirth, The
There were many touch-and-go issues during the first few weeks after the stroke, most connected with the delivery of the fetus and the threat it might pose to Karen. The neurology team and the OB team worked together throughout labor and delivery, c...
Brain Attack: Story of Karen: Recovery, The
At first, Ken Jones had concerns about their future, but because of her prompt treatment Karen was ambulatory with only some slight difficulty with her right leg and arm. They found that humor was a way of dealing with recovery, particularly as she ...
Brain Attack: Plasticity of the Brain, The
Dr. Bruce Dobkin illustrates the adaptability of the brain in a series of fMRI scans done just after the stroke and then at periodic intervals. The brain develops new pathways in supplementary areas if the primary functional area such as the motor c...
Brain Attack: Brain Attack
Stroke is the most common sudden injury to the brain, the third leading cause of death in the U. S. after heart disease and cancer. It is the principal cause of adult disability, and a common reason for people to be placed in nursing homes. A stroke...
Heart of the Matter: Heart Attack Symptoms for Women Often Differ from Men
Heart attack symptoms for women differ from men. They may not have chest tightness or pain as a warning signal, just indigestion or weakness. Women generally experience heart disease about ten years later than men because estrogen, it is thought, pr...