六.

The Neuro ICU can either be a place of healing or of delaying inevitability.  I have see patients discharged healthy as can be, and patients in a deep comas, breathing only through machines.  The service that the hospital tries to provide is to help a patient attain as close to a normal state before whatever they were afflicted with.  Maybe it can be as easy as stitching up a patient or sending home the patients home with pills; but in the ICU where patients have undergo great traumas, surgeries and interventions, "close to normal" is nigh out of reach.

I have learnt that of the diseases that a person can be afflicted with, particularly insidious diseases are the hardest to treat.  An example: epidural hematomas stem from arterial ruptures whereas subdural hematomas stem from venous ruptures.  Given that a patient will arrive to the hospital with one of these conditions, which is worse?

My try at reasoning out this question was that arterial is worse because of the greater blood flow than veins, faster blood loss when rupture occurs.  However, epidural hematomas give better warnings that subdural hematomas.  A person might collapse due to quick bleeding in the head, but provided that they'll get into a hospital, there are surgical interventions and treatments.  A person with subdural hematoma would not even notice they need to go to a hospital until it's too late.  The bleeding happens slowly, without any conscious changes to the person's livelihood; and when symptoms does finally occur, it is probably too late for any interventions.  Subdural hematoma patients are the saddest cases I have ever seen in my volunteering.

Please checkout any head injuries at a hospital, despite how okay you may feel.  Until next time.