It's not "official" yet, as you will come to understand, but it appears from what the neurologists told me Friday evening that Linda may never wake up.
Very early Friday morning Linda's nurse reported to me that the urine test came back completely negative for opioids. So much for the lingering drug residue theory of what is keeping her in a coma. The first doctor to come by on rounds Friday morning was a fellow from the neurology service, describing their plan to further investigate Linda's situation. They sent her for a CT scan of her brain in the morning, and much of the afternoon was taken up with an EEG test. After the hour long EEG process I asked the EEG technician what she saw. All she would say is "I saw brain waves the doctor will have to interpret." About 3:30 in the afternoon the neurology attending came by with a fellow and two residents to say they looked at the CT scan and saw nothing in it which would explain Linda's condition. They had not seen the interpretation of the EEG test yet. The attending neurologist spent half an hour examining Linda, with his flashlight and his reflex hammer in hand. Based on the brain CT and his exam, he agreed with my conclusion that Linda's brain injury was probably from lack of oxygen. He and his squad left at 4:30 p.m. without confirming the obvious conclusion that patients involved in 90 minute resuscitations do not recover from injuries of this sort. Guess I'll have to wait until Monday morning for the "official" delivery of the bad news.
Linda's advance directive, which some of you witnessed, clearly states that she does not wish to have a feeding tube, respirator, dialysis or CPR under the circumstances that she is permanently unconscious. I'm not going to make any decisions on the proposed tracheotomy or feeding tube until meeting with Dr. Tector and the neurologists Monday, but I'm sure you can see where this is leading. Pray for us.
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