|
Re: [wernicke_korsakoff_syndrome] Re: Wernicke-Korsakoff
My brother also was found comatose last April in Florida laying in the street in front of his house. He is 46 yrs. old. He was drinking heavily for quite some time and the symptoms you explain sound very much like my brothers. He was in a Coma for 5 days before we even knew he was in the hospital. We live in Maryland and hadn't heard from him and worried and called the police who told us where he was. At first he had no idea who he was or who his family or friends were. He was in pretty bad shape when we got there. He confabulated stories, hallucinated terribly, couldn't walk, see or eat by himself. He was also in diapers. The doctors in Florida were not sure what they were treating other than a breakdown. We flew him home to Maryland to a VA hospital in Baltimore where they diagnosed him with Wernicke Korsakoff syndrome. It took him 3.5 weeks before he could walk without help and almost 2 weeks before he could see. His treatment consisted of physiciatric therapy, thiamin and folic acid vitamins and a horrible drug which I cannot remember the name. We figured out that the drug made him worse. He hallicinated, and was acted like a maniac. We insisted that they cut him down and evidently take him off. He did get better without it. After another 6 wks they transferred him to a physiatrics hospital and at that time he was much better just confused with short term memory. He lasted 1 night there and begged to come home. The conditions there were terrible. Scared and confused ourselves we took him home! Now almost 1 year later, he is doing great! It was a very rocky road and is still a bit scary that he will drink again. He drives a car now and goes to the store. He is a bit slow and spends his time fixing up my moms house. He tells extremely extremely detailed stories (which are true) about how he fixed something. He is in the process of looking for work. He is a software engineer. Not successful yet on finding a job. We are not sure if he will be able to handle it. He is very smart and intelligent and needs to try it out for himself once he does get a job. I thank God that we have him with us today. Some cases of Korsakoff are absolutely not treatable from what I have heard, but my brother beat the odds they gave him of 10% of any recovery whatsoever. So my story goes to tell you, don't give up on your father. Be very patient with him and research as much as you can. Call John Hopkins in Baltimore for info to see what they know. Also watch the meds your doctors give him. My brother's memory improved and the confabulations stopped when we insisted they take him off this certain drug. Find out what the side effects to these drugs they are giving him. This one drug I speak of had a side effect of hallucinations! Please also understand that most korsakoff patients are not as lucky as my brother and most need to be in a nursing home, etc. But you never know. Good Luck and God Bless you and your family.
Linda
|
Having problems with message search?
Fill out this form to ensure your group is one of the first to be migrated to the new message search system.
Offline 
Send Email