Stroke - feeding tube

[Jenafur]

Hello,
My mother in law had a massive stroke Monday, at the time she immediately did not know who her family was and when taken to the hospital and while getting testes run she experienced a seizure. After this she went to "sleep" almost immediately . She has been asleep for almost 4.5 straight days. In these 4.5 days they put her on a respirator for a total of 1 day then they turned it off. Yesterday they inserted a feeding tube. They have started sedating her to make sure she does not wake up??? They said the swelling on the brain is bad, but not bad enough to do surgery and I am not sure what medications they are giving her to reduce this.
I can never find the doctor to question him and my father in law does not seem to act too worried, he just does whatever the doctors recommend. I do not know what is going on and would like to know what you think about the situation and what we are looking at in the near future.

[DrNavneetMD]

Hello Dear,

A stroke patient in coma for more than six hours has essentially no chance of making a recovery and many doctors with such patients will just keep managing the blood circulation to optimum level for prolonging life. The doctors  also focus on the maintenance of respiratory functions, oxygenation, blood sugar level, body nutrition and taking care of the skin, eyes, bladder and bowel, apart from taking measures to reduce the swelling in the brain. In order to forecast the outcome following coma due to stroke, it is necessary to understand the various grades of recovery following coma. These grades are based on the four important factors: Is the patient capable of regaining normal function, or, if he was already disabled before the present stroke, is he capable of regaining the previous level of activity? Will he be physically independent to look after himself? Will he recover the ability to understand the world around him? Will he regain consciousness and be awake? Accordingly, the five grades of outcome are possible:
        Good recovery: The patient will regain at least previous level of activity. Totally independent, he will be conscious and understanding.
        Moderate recovery: The patient will not regain full level of activity as before, but otherwise he will be all right.
        Severe disability: He will have severe limitation in activity and be physically dependent for daily chores.
        Vegetative state: He will be awake, but totally dependent and may not be able to even understand happenings around him.
        No recovery: The patient will remain in coma till death.
        Recovery chances
        Here are the percentages for good recovery at the end of one month for patients admitted in coma due to a stroke: Of all those admitted in coma stage only 15 per cent make good recovery; of those surviving at the end of 24 hours, 20 per cent make good recovery; among those who had survived in the first three days, 25 per cent make good recovery and finally, among those who had survived for seven days, 35 per cent make good recovery.You should consult a neurospecialist and clarify all your doubts .
Best