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My speech became quite stuttering on the morning of Nov. 10, 2003, but
I didn't go to the hospital until the evening of Nov. 11. At that time
I had only speech difficulty, but nothing else. I drove 25 miles on
the highway, sometimes at the speed of 70 mph, from my residence to
the hospital. I continued to work for two days after the speech
problem occurred.
At the hospital I was diagnosed as having a stroke, and given some
pills. Some time after taking the pills, my body started sweating
copiously, and I became extremely weak and dizzy. In the meantime,
both the left and right sides of my body started numbing. As far as I
remember, the right side was worse than left side. I complained to the
nurse about it, but she did nothing, except asking me to move my
fingers.
Then the left side became better. Numbing decreased and was eventually
gone. But the numbness on right did not go away. It stays.
After leaving the hospital, I found that the administered medication
was 'Clonidine' from my medical records, and got some information
about it from following web sites:
http://www.edutechsbs.com/adhd/00019.htm
http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/clonidin_ids.htm
http://www.whatmeds.com/meds/Clonidine.html
http://www.healthsquare.com/newrx/CAT1072.HTM
All the sources say the starting dose for Clonidine is 0.1 mg, and
must be adjusted according to each individual's response to it. But
the medicine was administered to me 0.2 mg only one time, and changed
to Norvacs after that. That was my first time of taking Clonidine.
I have been out of the hospital for nearly three months. My speech has
improved. But the numbness is not alleviated at all. The muscles on my
right side always ache. I feel like a rope tightened behind my right
knee. My right shoulder and side always feel tight and stiff. It is
difficult for me to walk, drive and lift things. My right side does
not co-operate with my left side. My sex is substantially damaged. As
said above, I only had speech problem, but none else, when arriving at
the hospital.
I've conducted research extensively on hypertension and Clonidine by
talking to medical professionals and visiting web pages on the
Internet. Following are my findings:
1. Clonidine is a medicine for lowering blood pressure.
2. For stroke patients, blood pressure must be lowered gradually.
3. If blood pressure is decreased too drastically, it can cause new
stroke or made old stroke worse.
4. The starting dose of Clonidine is 0.1 mg, and must be adjusted
according to individual patient's response. I was given 0.2 mg,
doubling the starting dosage.
5. Different patients may respond differently to the Clonidine. The
factors are age, condition of health, elasticity of arteries, diet,
genetics, race, fluid status and so forth. Therefore, it is important
to adhere to the starting dosage.
6. I was feeling numbing after taking the Clonidine, because my blood
pressure was dropped too low, so the flow of my blood became too slow.
Therefore, the stiffness, tightness and numbness on the right side of
my body were caused by the Clonidine. The doctor didn't follow the
requirement for the dosage of the medicine.
I would like to listen to professional opinion on what happened to me
after taking the Clonidine, and what caused the problems. Attached is
an excerpt of dialog between and nurse and me on the Internet, and a
remark by a neurologist in Taiwan.
Thanks for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Fuli Chang
A medical professional discusses my case on sci.med.cardiology:
From Me:
'Thanks a lot for your response. Now I understand more about what was
happening. Clonidine is a medicine for lowering blood pressure. My
blood pressure was high, so was administered to this medicine. My
blood pressure was reduced, and blood flow became slow. So the numbing
was taking place, and subsequently stays.'
From Respondent:
'That is a good synopsis of what likely happened.'
From Me:
'After taking the pills, my blood pressure was measured automatically
by a machine by my bed every few minutes. I knew that because each
time when the machine was working, I felt the cuff pressing on my arm.
I was measured many times. I assume the readings were stored
somewhere. Now I've received my records from the hospital, but the
readings of blood pressure for that period of time are not in there.'
From Respondent:
'Depending on the equipment, the readings were either stored or
transmitted electronically to a monitoring station. These free
standing vital sign machines are invariably equipped with alarms. If a
reading is too high or too low, it makes a most unpleasant noise. The
alarms are set per patient to accommodate different individuals.
'Be very aware - this is an Internet opinion from a nurse who has
never seen you. What might have happened is that when your pressure
was lowered, the area affected by the stroke grew larger. One reason
that stroke patients have such a high pressure is because the body
tries to send more blood to a compromised area. This can backfire and
cause another stroke or bleeding into the brain. It is unlikely that
taking Clonidine in the future would cause the same response.'
An analogy by a neurologist from Taiwan:
The blood vein is like a pipe. When a stroke happens, blood flow at
somewhere of the pipe is not smooth or blocked. If blood pressure is
lowered too much, the blood flow will become too slow and blood supply
be decreased, and more cells consequently die due to the lack of
blood. This makes the stroke worse.'
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Fuli,
You may wish to speak with a lawyer and be examined by a physician who
has access to your medical records, including these blood pressure records.
The nurse with whom you corresponded clearly states that the blood pressure
machine should have sounded an alarm if your blood pressure became too low.
Since you do not mention an alarm sounding it is difficult to believe that
you had low blood pressure. I don't think therefore that the dose of
clonidine was inappropriate or caused a dramatic decrease in your blood
pressure. Perhaps the symptoms that you experienced were unrelated to the
clonidine.
I'm far more troubled by the possibility that you had a second stroke
during your hospital stay. With the sudden onset of symptoms the nurse
should have summoned a doctor. The nurse's failure to act during the onset
of numbness, weakness, et c. may indeed be malpractice.
Good luck,
Dave M
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