Left side brain damage

[godmom]

My God daughter, "Abby" was born 3 weeks ago tomorrow.  She just stopped moving after a perfect pregnancy.  She was white as a piece of paper, anemic, and had a few other complications.  She also had some cesures.  Her cat scan came back with no left side brain activity and very little on the right.  At that time her brain was very swolen.  Last week there was another cat scan and eeg, a different doctor told the family that she would have cp if she recovered but that she had brain stem activity, still nothing conclusive on the left and right sides of the brain, but that they need to consentrate on her getting off N.O.  What exactly does loss of left side brain activity, or reduction of left side brain activity mean for quality of life??  I love her, I dont want her to suffer.  We know so little about the brain, can we help her?

[Carolpoole]

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[monkey7]

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[SueL]

My was passed through school because of his good behavior bud ran into a brick wall in 9th grade.  The pressure from teachers and his condition of being learning disabled was too much and with the help of drugs, (massive amounts of Ecstosy combined with who knows what) he had some kind of psychotic split.    He was able to conjure up any image or scenario he chose and "forced" his mind to do this.  He describes this period as the time he "fried" his brain and ruined his mind.  

He has had episodes of delusions that are very real to him.
It seems to worsen when he has fear or feelings of insecurity.
Head ticks and heavy use of marijuana (chronic amounts) landed him in the hospital.   I wonder if the Ecstasy did damage his mind and his current frightening delusions are the result?  His eyes are very bad.  He was someone who could not divide 3 into 13 on paper. Can I HELP HIM?

[godmom]

Thank you.

I know I am going to butcher the spelling, but N.O. refers to nitrais oxide, anyway, they say no function on the left side and very little on the right side.  worst case vegitative and best case cerebral palsy, which I am already researching.  This seems to be due to seisures and loss of oxygen.  I just dont want her to suffer.
godmom

[CCF-Neuro-M.D.-PW]

I will try to give you some general imformation about your questions, however without knowing your Goddaughter's case and results, I cannot comment specifically about her

The EEG is the test that assesses brain activity while the CAT scan looks at the structure of the brain. I'm not sure what you mean by 'N.O.'.

Loss of left sided brain activity usually means that there is either a loss of brain tissue on that side (for instance from a stroke or hemorrhage) or dysfunction on that side (for various reasons, such as repeated seizure activity/postictal)
I'm not sure if they thought that the right side was normal as you mention this side was not 'conclusive'

The human brain at this age, still has a lot of potential, and functions normally destined for damaged areas can be taken up by other more normal areas of the brain - to what extent this occurs and how much recovery occurs is only apparent by time, and depending how much damage and where
Your doctors should be able to tell you approximately where the damage is and what deficits may be permament eg right sided weakness

Seizures are also common in this setting, and may be controlled by medication, and in some cases by removing the damaged area surgically. In some cases this can really improve development or quality of life.  
Overall it is impossible to predict the outcome, but the human brain at this young has the potential, in certain cases, to adapt and develop around these problems

If uncontrolled seizures becomes a problem, the department of Pediatric Eplepsy at the Cleveland Clinic are experts at dealing with this problem either medically or surgically.

Good luck