Doctors Can Not Agree on Brain Function

Eddie's EEG was basically flat. It showed almost no brain function. One nuerologist insisted that this indicated that he did not have brain activity due to the hypoxia he had suffered at birth. But the other doctors did not agree. Or, at first, one other doctor did not agree. A second doctor was called in and now two doctors felt that this did not necessarily indicate that Eddie had no brain activity. They thought there was a strong possibility that this was just due to his being heavily medicated with seizure medication.

We, at this time, had no idea there was a disagreement. We were told by the nurses that the doctors felt it was due to his medication and that he would be re-tested later, when his seizures were under better control. He had had a few more very slight seizures in the few days after his birth.

We had no idea about the disagreements the doctors were having.

We were also getting extremely frustrated by the lack of doctor communication. We would ask for doctors to call us or meet with us, and we never got any follow-through. Everything we were finding out was "unofficially" through the nurses. This had me so frustrated as this was my baby, not just one of their many patients. I wish doctors would understand this.

Brain Function or Not?

Eddie had suffered a seizure right away when he was born. He had a few seizures in the first few days of life. One seizure medication didn't seem to work, so he was on two seizure medications. There was a lot of concern about the seizures causing more brain damage. This was another reason we were not to stimulate him. He was basically sedated to the point of just being a limp body. It was very hard to see. We would lift his little hand and it would just fall back down. The idea was to keep his brain calm so that there would be no seizures. Now, remember, I am not a doctor. I am just relaying information as it was explained to me.

Eddie's first MRI came out normal. We were very excited about that. But when he was tested for brain activity, it showed that it basically did not exist. This is where it got even more stressful and interesting.