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[peachykeenLVN]

Hi! My name is Laura and I am a LVN for a quadriplegic named Zac. He is at home on a ventilator with a c5 complete injury. Zac was injured in a Motocross competition 9 years ago at 17. He has been paralyzed since. He was pretty active and had no noticeable brain damage.

About 3 years ago, Zac recieved a procedure in Mexico involving shark stem cells. Afterwards, he went into cardiac arrest and is now experiencing cerebral atrophy and has no real short term memory and several other personality and behavioral changes, particularly perseveration (repeating of same word(s)).

I am just curious to see if any others had this procedure or heard about it. I am struggling to find daily activities for him and his neurologists are very dismissisive. I don't want to just watch t.v. all day with him! Any tips/suggestions would be very appreciated.

[Trinity]

Hi Laura,

The problems he is experiencing could well be due to the cardiac arrest rather than the stem cells (although the stem cells caused the arrest in the first place). His brain may have suffered due to a lack of oxygen at the time of his arrest (hypoxic brain injury) This is not unusual. As far as I'm aware it is irreversible (but drs say this about a lot of things!)

It is admirable that you are taking the time and effort to research activities, if only more professionals were so dedicated (sorry, had to go look up what an LVN is!) rather than taking the easy option.

Good luck

Trinity X