Can a person recover from an anoxic brain injury

My father went out to do groceries around 11:45am and my mom was tidying up the house. I came downstairs at 12:15pm to grab a drink and found my mom on the floor without a pulse, I called 911 and initiated CPR until the paramedics came. They were able to get her heart back and later at the hospital she started breathing on her own. They started therapeutic hypothermia later on in the day for 24 hours. The following day the attending doctor had painted the worst picture possible for us, but we decided to stay strong and give my mom the time and chance of fighting back. She has since developed a ventilator caused infection and is on antibiotics. Today is the 6th day, they are going to be performing a treacheostomy and will hopefully be able to get her to a room outside of the ICU. All we can do right now is hope and pray that everything will be alright.

My husband who is 52 experienced a cardiac arrest after he endured a seizure while he was in the hospital under observation for a previous seizure he had hours before. No one can tell me how long he was down before they found him but he was resuscitated with CPR and put on a ventilator to breathe for him even though he could breath on his own. He was put into a medically induced coma. I was told that his brain needed time to heal so until they were sure that he was able to respond to simple commands they would keep him sedated. After 10 days the sedation was reduced and my husband was able to respond to simple commands (squeeze my hand, wiggle your toes). He was removed from the ventilator on the 11th day and I was prepped that he would have a long road to recovery. That first day it was found that he had little to no muscle control in his legs. I was told that after 11 days atrophy had most likely set in his muscles. The nurses in Neuro ICU were wonderfully supportive and advised he would need further rehabilitative care in order to be able to come home. After 3 weeks in the hospital my husband was moved to a rehabilitation facility where he stayed for another 3 weeks and had physical, occupational and speech therapy. He made slow progress but we knew he still had a long way to go. When my husband came home he needed the use of a walker to get around and needed help with simple tasks such as cutting up his food and getting into and out of the shower. My husband continued out patient physical therapy twice a week and was able to regain the strength in his legs and arms after 3 weeks. He continued to have muscle tremors in his legs and arms and his speech gets sloppy but mainly when he is tired. We found that the miracle drug for him is Keppra. This medicine has made all the difference in his recovery. By staying on 500 mg of Keppra three times a day the muscle tremors have significantly reduced and he is able to walk without the walker and do simple tasks again. My husband is still not able to do many of the things that he is used to doing and his frustration is that no one can tell him just how long it may take him to get back to his old self. One person has told him that he may be as good as he will ever get but we refuse to accept that. My husband works out at home by using an exercise bike, treadmill and hand and leg weights. He was able to cut the grass using the riding lawn mower a few weeks ago and that is something he has always enjoyed doing. It has been almost 4 months since this life changing event for my husband started and while I fully expect recovery to take a good year my husband is becoming impatient and just wants immediate results. Keeping him positive in his mindset is key to his slow but continual recovery. My hope is that he will be back to riding his motorcycle by this time next year.

My 25 year old son with an anoxic brain injury after cardiac arrest is slowly progressing toward recovery. He suffered frontal lobe hypoxia - was in a medically induced coma for 21 days. The doctors painted a possible bleak outcome It is a very slow recovery. He went thru in patient therapy- speech , physical and occupational for one month. Now continues with outpatient therapy. Initially he attended outpatient therapy 3 times a weekThe doctors tell us it typically takes at least one year for recovery. It has been 7 months and he continues to show improvement. He now goes to therapy once a week. He is beginning to drive . Each hypoxic brain injury is unique to each person. We were told in the beginning critical stage to look for a longterm care facility for him. We stayed positive and look for the best care.

My 24 year old son suffered cardiac arrest after a near fatal cardiac arrhythmia while on vacation with us. He collapsed while walking . A bystander that new CPR was there and iniated CPR with in minutes. He was brought to a major medical center. He was in a coma for 21 days. One neurologist was very encouraging. ICU MDs were not supportive of recovery. The MDS wanted us to look at LTAC ( long term acute care facility ) for him to transferred. We spent every minute by his side making sure he received the best care. After 17 days in a coma we had him transferred to a hospital closer to our home. The new neurologist believed that he would not recover due to his MRI. After 22 days he came out of the coma . He had weakness in all his extremities and could not walk and his vision was impaired. Slowly he gained his strength and vision improved. He spent 20 days inpatient rehab and 3 months out patient. He is walking talking and independent in all activities of daily living . We are told he is a miracle. We prayed for a miracle for 21 days. We never gave up. We were an advocate for him to receive the best care. Many doctors and nurses were not hopeful.His age and being healthy was on his side. He is doing well we r praying now that he will be able to drive and return to his job next month. I realize my son was extremely lucky. You have to stay positive and not always believe the MDs. The brain is an amazing organ