Saturday, February 8, 2014

Whats wrong with stroke rehab? treatment? diagnosis?

Let me list the ways. I see absolutely nothing right about stroke.
This is why I think the whole stroke medical world needs to be destroyed and start over. Everyone is just tinkering at the edges and doesn't realize the complete failure of the whole system.  I've addressed each one of these points multiple times. Damn am I arrogant.
1. ER diagnosis - Too machine and neurologist intensive, small hospitals can't easily diagnose stroke.
2. tPA - only 12% efficacy, until this is acknowledged as a failure will we get something better.
3. stroke protocols for rehab - there seems to be none.
4. 'All strokes are different, all stroke recoveries are different' - God, the stupidity of this causes everyone to throw up their hands and basically say I can't help you because  your stroke is unique. No, its not.
5. Damage diagnosis - There is none, without this your doctor can't compare what worked in rehab from one patient to the next.
6. Cause of death - Stroke should never be listed as cause of death, Brain damage is the cause and until that damage is described in detail will we be able to correlate damaged areas to the possibility of recovery.
7.  Research is uncoordinated - The major associations, ASA, NSA, WSO seem not to be doing anything about a strategic 5, 10,15,25 year plan to address all these problems.
8. Nothing is being done to stop the neuronal cascade of death. This is the single point that would alleviate a lot of dead/damaged neurons and make rehab much more likely to succeed.

1 comment:

  1. ONLY 8???? Why Dean, I'm surprised. When I first read the title my answer was EVERYTHING!

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