Less than 24 hours post-op, Senator Johnson is "appropriately responsive" to stimuli, both auditory and sensory. He has moved all extremities and communicated that he understands verbal communication by blinking his eyes. He reached out to his wife and squeezed her hand.
Now, getting ready to enter day two, he is leaving the phase where his greatest danger is a sudden, new bleed. Now the enemy is infection. Frequently - probably q6ยบ - he will have a CBC (Complete Blood Count) collected. (An aside - as you know, on TV they always have someone yell "CBC Stat" - well we never do that. Never. I was a paramedic for 10 years and in the lab bloodbanking for traumas for ten more. I have never heard that order called out, and I'm the one who would have collected the specimen. As a paramedic, I collected a "rainbow" or a tube of each color and taped the tubes to the patient's body when I set the IV in the chopper so the blood was ready for processing by the lab as soon as we landed.)
Back on topic - now they are watching his White Count, and he is probably getting a prophylactic IV antibiotic. I will be monitoring the news reports on the senators condition and posting frequently.
Showing posts with label Tim Johnson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tim Johnson. Show all posts
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Have a side order of light to go with that heat
There is a lot of heat being generated around the emergency surgery that Senator Tim Johnson underwent last night. Unfortunately there is very little light emitting.
First of all, what Senator Johnson experienced was an intracranial bleed, brought about by an arteriovenous malformation. Arteriovenous malformation is the term for a congenital disorder in which the vessels of the cerebral cortex grow overly large. The condition affects about 300,000 Americans, and of that number, only about 12%, or 36,000 will ever experience any symptoms. The other 88% will either go undetected, be noticed when another condition is being treated or be detected at autopsy.
The symptoms of arteriovenous malformation might range from strange sensations, such as an extremity feeling mildly "asleep," to headaches and siezures. In rare instances, a sudden onset bleed occurs, such as Senator Johnson experienced yesterday.
I have a little bit of personal knowledge about this topic. In 1973 my father had what was then called a Cerebral Hemmorhage. It was caused by an arteriovenous malformation. He underwent eleven hours of surgery and the compromise was corrected. He was hospitalized for 36 days, back on active duty 90 days after his discharge from the hospital and his only long-term deficit was he lost his sense of smell.
Not everyone who experiences a cerebral hemmorhage as a result of an arteriovenous malformation is as fortunate as my father was, but we are making great strides in the treatment of neurological trauma. Recovery with little compromise is rapidly becoming the norm.
What potential deficits the Senator may experience could vary widely and will depend on what area of the brain was affected and how much brain tissue was compromised. This information has not been made public. He may come out of it like a shiny new penny, or he may be paralyzed or unable to speak.
The only thing I can say with absolute certainty right now is this: All of the handwringing about the senate changing hands is premature at best. Everyone needs to relax. The guy only had surgery last night. He is still being sedated because any time the brain is subjected to any kind of trauma, including surgery, there is swelling. As long as there is swelling there is no accurate measuement of deficits, and we are about 36-48 hours away from being able to make any accurate assessments.
Yet even with that note of caution, I am optimistic about the Senator's chances to recover and resume his duties. It is certainly premature to sound the death knell for the Democratic senate, so for the love of all that is sacred (the Constitution, the Magna Carta, the Insurrection Acts, Posse Comitatus, Habeas Corpus) stop borrowing trouble.
First of all, what Senator Johnson experienced was an intracranial bleed, brought about by an arteriovenous malformation. Arteriovenous malformation is the term for a congenital disorder in which the vessels of the cerebral cortex grow overly large. The condition affects about 300,000 Americans, and of that number, only about 12%, or 36,000 will ever experience any symptoms. The other 88% will either go undetected, be noticed when another condition is being treated or be detected at autopsy.
The symptoms of arteriovenous malformation might range from strange sensations, such as an extremity feeling mildly "asleep," to headaches and siezures. In rare instances, a sudden onset bleed occurs, such as Senator Johnson experienced yesterday.
I have a little bit of personal knowledge about this topic. In 1973 my father had what was then called a Cerebral Hemmorhage. It was caused by an arteriovenous malformation. He underwent eleven hours of surgery and the compromise was corrected. He was hospitalized for 36 days, back on active duty 90 days after his discharge from the hospital and his only long-term deficit was he lost his sense of smell.
Not everyone who experiences a cerebral hemmorhage as a result of an arteriovenous malformation is as fortunate as my father was, but we are making great strides in the treatment of neurological trauma. Recovery with little compromise is rapidly becoming the norm.
What potential deficits the Senator may experience could vary widely and will depend on what area of the brain was affected and how much brain tissue was compromised. This information has not been made public. He may come out of it like a shiny new penny, or he may be paralyzed or unable to speak.
The only thing I can say with absolute certainty right now is this: All of the handwringing about the senate changing hands is premature at best. Everyone needs to relax. The guy only had surgery last night. He is still being sedated because any time the brain is subjected to any kind of trauma, including surgery, there is swelling. As long as there is swelling there is no accurate measuement of deficits, and we are about 36-48 hours away from being able to make any accurate assessments.
Yet even with that note of caution, I am optimistic about the Senator's chances to recover and resume his duties. It is certainly premature to sound the death knell for the Democratic senate, so for the love of all that is sacred (the Constitution, the Magna Carta, the Insurrection Acts, Posse Comitatus, Habeas Corpus) stop borrowing trouble.
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