tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Swine flu coma victim makes ?miracle? recovery
27/2/2010
A 30-year-old man who had been in a coma since August last year, after contracting the A H1N1 virus, has astonished staff at Faro Hospital by making an unprecedented clinical comeback that is now being studied and documented.
Renato Pedro had been in Faro Hospital?s Intensive Care Unit (UCI) since August 26th. Surprised medical staff are now documenting his recovery from the coma, during which he suffered several life-threatening implications.
Faro Hospital director Helena Gomes said, ?he has been though very complex situations, from cardio-respiratory failure, to multiple organ failure?; situations that have now been overcome.
?This situation is atypical. On many an occasion it has left us very perplexed when trying to find answers. We are documenting the whole situation, from registering daily clinical assessments, using photography and tests, because the outcome has been completely unexpected and atypical?, she said.
Helena Gomes explained that the patient has been out of a coma ?for several weeks? and that the situations that led to ?multi-organ failure? had been overcome.
But it has been stressed that, due to the implications of multi-organ failure, there are other clinical factors that now must be assessed, like brain damage, which currently cannot be examined as ?it is not possible to carry out a complete neurological exam?.
Medical tests so far have shown that the patient is responding to orders; he understands them, can read, but cannot as yet verbally answer. There is also no active movement in his hands, arms, or lower limbs and his respiration is unstable.
Nevertheless, Faro medical staff are hoping his recovery will endure, and have said they will be ?communicating their findings to collegues in other countries?.
?We are all working to get his movement back, so that he will once again be able to eat, swallow, talk, move, and voluntarily control his gestures? Helena Gomes said, claiming she was ?confident of a progressive recovery?.
She ?presumed? that the study and documentation of Renato Pedro?s recovery would be used in helping others with the same condition.
http://www.theportugalnews.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=1050-64
27/2/2010
A 30-year-old man who had been in a coma since August last year, after contracting the A H1N1 virus, has astonished staff at Faro Hospital by making an unprecedented clinical comeback that is now being studied and documented.
Renato Pedro had been in Faro Hospital?s Intensive Care Unit (UCI) since August 26th. Surprised medical staff are now documenting his recovery from the coma, during which he suffered several life-threatening implications.
Faro Hospital director Helena Gomes said, ?he has been though very complex situations, from cardio-respiratory failure, to multiple organ failure?; situations that have now been overcome.
?This situation is atypical. On many an occasion it has left us very perplexed when trying to find answers. We are documenting the whole situation, from registering daily clinical assessments, using photography and tests, because the outcome has been completely unexpected and atypical?, she said.
Helena Gomes explained that the patient has been out of a coma ?for several weeks? and that the situations that led to ?multi-organ failure? had been overcome.
But it has been stressed that, due to the implications of multi-organ failure, there are other clinical factors that now must be assessed, like brain damage, which currently cannot be examined as ?it is not possible to carry out a complete neurological exam?.
Medical tests so far have shown that the patient is responding to orders; he understands them, can read, but cannot as yet verbally answer. There is also no active movement in his hands, arms, or lower limbs and his respiration is unstable.
Nevertheless, Faro medical staff are hoping his recovery will endure, and have said they will be ?communicating their findings to collegues in other countries?.
?We are all working to get his movement back, so that he will once again be able to eat, swallow, talk, move, and voluntarily control his gestures? Helena Gomes said, claiming she was ?confident of a progressive recovery?.
She ?presumed? that the study and documentation of Renato Pedro?s recovery would be used in helping others with the same condition.
http://www.theportugalnews.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=1050-64