Cardiac arrest..?

my boyfriend had a cardiac arrest at home about a week ago. he is 36, sometimes used drugs,i.e., meth,and smoked cigarrttes, right now he is slowley getting better, but he cant talk and is having trouble moving his right arm, is he going to be able to fully recover from this, ... and be normal?? and if so how long does it take???

Your boyfriend had a stroke (also called a cerebrovascular accident). During his cardiac arrest, insufficient blood reached his brain, and part of the cortex on the left side was irreversibly damaged. This is the part of the brain that controls the right arm and speech (Broca's area), and its disfunction is called a motor aphasia. The weakness of his right arm is called a right hemiparesis.

From http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disord...

"What is a stroke?

"A stroke is when a clogged or burst artery [or cardiac arrest]interrupts blood flow to the brain. This interruption of blood flow deprives the brain of needed oxygen and causes the affected brain cells to die. When brain cells die, function of the body parts they control is impaired or lost.

"A stroke can cause paralysis or muscle weakness, loss of feeling, speech and language problems, memory and reasoning problems, swallowing difficulties, problems of vision and visual perception, coma, and even death.

"What physical and emotional problems occur after a stroke?

"Common warning signs of a stroke include the following:
*sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm and/or leg
*sudden confusion, trouble speaking, or difficulty understanding speech

"Because of the organization of our nervous system, an injury to one side of the brain affects the opposite side of the body. Often the person loses movement and/or feeling in the arm and/or leg opposite the side of the brain affected by the stroke. So, if a person has a stroke on the left side of the brain, he or she may have weakness or paralysis in the right arm and leg. This makes it difficult for the person to perform activities of daily living (e.g., dressing, feeding, bathing, tying shoes, etc.). It is also common for survivors of stroke to tire easily."
----
You'll want to read the whole section that the above was taken from at the link provided.

Your boyfriend can expect some of this function to return, but not all of it, and it is impossible to say how much or over how long. His recovery will require rehab which will take months.

Sorry about your loss.

everyone heals differently. I would say being only 36 he can probably bounce back with a full recovery. Or almost a full recovery. There could always be the possibility of lingering pain etc.

Your heart can go through 3 stages of pain/injury

1st you have ischemia-which is a loss of adequate blood flow and is fully fixable
2nd is Injury also fully fixable. This is when you don't have adequat blood flow for an extended period
3rd is Tissue Death. At this point you can not regenerate. But hopefully it is just an injury and will get a full recovery

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