Coping With Stroke

My son with epilepsy wanted to drive and had a workup to see if he would qualify for brain surgery to remove the seizure focus. He went to a “world class facility” but ended up with a stroke when the dr. caused a blood clot during the wada test and did not treat it as he thought he was neurologically normal after the test. Although he could move his arms and legs, as soon as I tried to talk to him in recovery, I knew something was terribly wrong with his comprehension and I tried for hours to tell the dr. I was afraid he was having a stroke Besides being a nurse, first and foremost I am a parent and know when something is not “normal” for my chld. I felt his symptoms did not improve but progressed , but the dr kept telling me this was not a stroke but a reaction to the dye. After three hours, he began having difficulty moving the fingers of his left hand and then the dr. ordered a cat scan and admitted him for “observation” and put him on a blood thinner but still persisted in telling me this was not a stroke and he would be 100% normal by morning. All this time , though he never told me of the blood clot seen during the wada test early that morning. He never suggested using clot busters or a procedure to suck out the clot as he never admitted to the clots existence. After the cat scan, he did say there was a little fragment seen that would dissolve by morning and that the benefits of clot busters would not outweigh the risks as “this was not a stroke and he would be back to 100% normal by morning”. By the next morning, my son who ran cross country and played the saxaphone but who dreamed of being off medicine and able to drive, was totally paralyzed on his left side. Drs. are not always right and God help us when they don’t listen.