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Therapy Treatment for a Severe Stroke

Everyone in a stroke victim's immediate circle feels the arduousness of the recovery process. Families may want the person to get back on his feet quickly. No one craves normalcy, however, more than the victim himself. Fortunately, the recovery process for severe stroke victims has come a long way. Rehabilitation sessions, medications, and other healing methods are all used as therapy that will allow a person to function as best as he may ever be able to, as quickly as possible.

  1. Stroke Rehab

    • Because a stroke causes brain damage, certain types of functionality may never be recovered. Rehab helps a victim maximize her success by using tried-and-true methods to restore function to the body. Range-of-motion exercises are some of the most common but, when repeated, can often yield the best results. A stroke victim may only be able to move his hand after thousands of failed attempts, and rehabilitative surgery focuses on making such motion possible and comfortable. Other complex functions, even getting dressed and brushing your teeth, may become closer to normal after rehabilitative therapy.

    Medicine

    • Medicinal treatment is a very common form of therapy following a stroke. In the early stages, doctors may use a blood thinner such as aspirin to break up a clot and restore flow to the brain. Should the brain begin receiving oxygen shortly after a stroke, you will likely maintain a good amount of functionality. Doctors may choose to administer treatments directly into the blood flow through an intravenous tube during and after surgery, which often helps victims recover more quickly and fully. Other medicines, most at their experimental stages as of 2009, help overcome the neurological deficit that makes recovery so difficult.

    Additional Therapies

    • Enderectomies and angioplasties are performed immediately on stroke victims to minimize the risk of damage. However, if these procedures are unsuccessful, doctors may introduce a tissue plasminogen activator into the bloodstream. Speech pathologists, much like rehabilitative doctors, work with individuals who have suffered a stroke to help restore speech. Hyperbaric oxygen chambers have shown some promise in lessening the damages of a stroke. Finally, heart disease treatment may prevent a stroke from recurring.

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