A Person Who Was Nearly Killed After a Heart Attack - Research Paper Example

 The patient who is the subject for discussion in this paper is a family friend and my father’s co-worker. He is in his mid 40s with a wife and three kids. He sufferred from a Myocardial Infarction or MI (commonly known as heart attack) accompanied by a Cerebral Vascular Attack or CVA (commonly known as “stroke“ ) three years ago which nearly killed him and rendered him paralyzed later. Many years ago, he was already warned by the doctors to watch his diet and maintain a regular exercise. He was advised to be “careful about his health” and watch his weight because he was already hypertensive and his family (both on the father and mother side) had a long history of having cardiovascular disease and hypertension. He was already overweight which indicated that he really had to watch his health. Even his wife which is also a family friend already advised him to at least scale down on his drinking habit and have a change of diet. Still, it was of no avail. He was encouraged to do sport or go to the gym or do a leisure swim as a substitute for drinking but it still did not work. Our family friend just had no sense of mortality. Even if he already reached his 40s and had history of cardiovascular diseases on both sides of his family, he still carried the lifestyle that he had when he was still college. I know this because he was a college friend of my dad who often told me that he still party like they were still in college. There were beer binges on weekends and holidays and he still indulge in foods that even I would be anxious to partake. He like to indulge in fatty foods like pork and high cholesterol beef in addition to junk foods and soda. Even his wife already reminded him to “slow down” with his eating and drinking habits to no avail. He does not get enough sleep due to his beer binges rendering his immunity system weak. Until one day while eating, he sufferred a heart attack and it was obviously bad. He just fell from his seat. It was accompanied by a stroke due to his hypertension. It nearly killed him only that he was rushed to the hospital in time. But he was not able to recover from that single heart attack and stroke. It rendered him paralyzed and he was not the same man after that. The doctors who attended him explained that the stroke which paralyzed his brain was caused by high blood pressure and heart attack which deprived the brain of oxygen during the attack. Due to the spontaneous heart attacks and stroke that deprived the brain oxygen (caused by heart attack), several blood vessels or nerves in his brain burst. The bursting of the blood vessels left a blood clot lodged within the nerves of his brain that blocked the oxygen from reaching his brain tissues. As a result, his brain tissues deteriorated that instead of recovering, his situation is just getting bad. To date, his physical movement is seriously limited that he has to be on a wheel chair and his speech is now impaired because he can no longer speak clearly. His hearing also deteriorated because we have to yell before he can hear us. But what hurts more than his physical condition is the effect of his sudden paralysis on his family. It was also as if his family was paralyzed. The very first thing that was affected was their finances. He was the sole breadwinner in their family and his paralysis rendered him unfit to work and removed the source of income for their family. The only consolation they have is that they were done amortizing their house that they were not thrown out to the streets even if the husband is no longer working. Their savings were literally wiped out with his hospitalization that rendered them bankrupt. They also had to spend for his expensive maintenance medicines. What hurt more is that the wife was forced to work doing some menial jobs that she was not used to. Two of his children has to stopped going to college (the eldest was sophomore in college while the second is a freshman and the youngest was in junior high). They went through turbulent times after that becasue their children rebelled when they were asked to quit college because they could no longer finance it. I think they are beginning to cope right now because I heard that the eldest son is back on college albeit a working student. The second child I believe is also planning to go back in college on a similar status. Along with the wiping out of their finances is also the souring of their marriage that they nearly got divorced. He is just thankful that he has an understanding wife that still bear with his situation and works menial job to earn an income for the family. As to our family friend who turned paralyzed, his first year was rough as he adjusts to his new condition. Obviously he can no longer party and indulge like what he used to do due to his condition. But the transition proved to be difficult for him because he sufferred from depression after his paralyzation. He also became grumpy which explains why their marriage turned sour. According to the doctors who attended to him, he would not have sufferred his fate had he scaled down on his indulgent lifestyle. During his previous mandatory company check ups, he was already diagnosed to have hypertension and susceptible to cardiovascular disease. Had he listened to the doctor’s advise and committed to their preventive programs, he would not have been paralyzed. His heart attack and stroke were not inevitable but rather avoidable. It was only a consequence of an excessive and indulgent lifestyle which could have been prevented had he scaled down his drinking and eating habits. Obviously, the doctor’s earlier advises were not taken seriously and just fell on deaf ears. He just says “yes” to all the doctor’s advise and continued with his merry ways. My father explained that despite the doctor’s and his wife’s advice to scale down on his lifestyle, he still continued with his indulgent lifestyle because of the friends he kept. In his mind, he still thought that he was still in college associating himself with younger colleagues who are fond of beer binges and excessive eating. None of his friends suffered from heart attack and stroke yet (because they are relatively younger than him and perhaps without history of cardiovascular diseases in their familiy) and he thought that he will never suffer from it. He forgot however that he is way older than his friends and that his body can no longer absorb much abuse as it used to. Eventually, his indulgent lifestyle took its toll on his body and the single cardio and hypertensive attack he sufferred nearly killed him and rendered him paralyzed afterwards. His case is all too common among young men who does not have a concept of their own mortality that they indulge without thinking of the consequences. This is very true among young people who find the concept of cardiovascular and hypertension to be an alien concept belonging only to old people until it hits them, just like our family friend, who never expected that a single attack would already render him immobile for the rest of his life. What makes the attack more painful is that he was never prepared for it that the transition becomes traumatic because the change was sudden. He never thought that he would suffer from cardio and hypertensive attack. Among the sudden change was, first, his lifestyle. Even if he wanted to go out with his friend and indulge, he can no longer do it because he is already immobile thus socially incapable. Second, he could no longer maintain the kind of lifestyle he had because of the loss of income caused by his paralysis. His two children stopped going to college because they could no longer afford it. Vacations were cut and expenditures were limited to utter basic needs. For a time, their lives were basically disrupted and seemed paralyzed with his paralysis. It took them three years before they could adjust to their new life. I can only imagine how he felt with this sudden changes but I know he felt bad because he sufferred from depression after his paralysis. The moral of his story is; we should take care of our health. We will never realize how important it is to be healthy until we get sick. Read More