Jim's Stroke Recovery

On 12/20/2017 my husband Jim Sosnowski underwent surgery for treatment of a brain aneurysm. The surgery went terribly wrong and the stent the doctors were trying to place ruptured the aneurysm causing a very significant brain bleed and a stroke that affect approximately 1/3 of his brain. His is currently in the Neurological Intensive Care unit where he has been for 24 day. At this time he has full left sided paralysis.  He had to have a portion of his skull removed to allow for the brain to swell without causing any further damage. We was sedated and left on a breathing machine for weeks to allow his brain to rest and the swelling to go down. They have been unable to wean him off the breathing machine and had to preform a tracheostomy and place a trach tube in his throat for him to breath. He is off sedation now and breathing somewhat on his own but is still needing some ventilator support. His has limited mobility on his right side. He can squeeze you hand and wiggle his toes if you ask but that is as far as his mobility goes on the right side at this time. He is still very sleep from the brain injury and is difficult to arouse at times. He had to have a shunt placed in his brain to drain off the extra fluid. He also had to have a surgically placed feeding tube since he can't eat or drink at this time. He is making slow steps daily. It is unknown what his new baseline capacity be. He will be going to inpatient rehab as soon as he no longer needs the ventilator. While in inpatient rehab he will be getting physical therapy to work on his gross motor skills, occupational therapy to work on his fine motor skills such as learning how to feed himself, dress himself etc, and speech therapy to learn how to speak and swallow again. There is no way to estimate how long his inpatient rehab will be but I have been told 6-12 months. It is going to be a long journey for Jim but he is strong and he will get through this. It is just going to take time and a lot of hard work. Anything anyone would be willing to contribute to help him on this long journey and the change in life he will have once he has recovered will be greatly appreciated.