My mom had craniectomy for head injury. When is she expected to get back her conscious?

Question

Hello doctor,

My mom met an accident with a head injury. Right frontotemporoparietal (FTP) subdural hematoma (SDH) and midline shift, craniectomy surgery is done on the same day. But still she is semi-unconscious. There are body movements, but she has not yet opened her eyes. Ventilator has been removed before 30 hours. I want to know when she can open her eyes and how long will it take to become normal. I have attached a recent computed tomography (CT) scan.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com. This is the most common question we encounter in our daily practice. One thing I want you to understand is that the surgery which has been performed was a ''life-saving procedure''. If that were not done, we would have lost her; luckily, thank God that did not happen. The rest of the recovery is actually unpredictable. Depending on the extent of the damage, the patient will recover after this sort of surgery. Positive things are she has survived, she is off the ventilator, her injury was more on the right side and not on the left side. So there are pretty good chances that she will improve eventually. If it had been more injury on the left side, we would not have expected her ever to speak again or calculate again. That is not the case with the right side. She would open her eyes in less than a week. Other functions will take time to recover up to six months. The next stage is you have to focus on rehabilitation measures.