About six-months ago while sleeping my father-in-law started loudly making noises and talking (I’m not sure if it was intelligible or gibberish as I wasn’t there), but was completely unresponsive and couldn’t be woken up. This lasted for about 5-10 minutes and he became alert as paramedics arrived. He was admitted to the hospital for observation. They did a brain scan and his cardiologist also did some testing, but they couldn’t find any problems. He was released after a day or two and they said it could be an indication that he may have a stroke soon, but that it could have also been stress related.
It almost sounded like someone sleep walking to me, aside from him not actually walking when it occurred, but the hospital was far more concerned and emphasized that a stroke could be imminent. I’m not sure if they put him on any medication.
I believe he had some follow-up tests, but nothing ever came of them and there were no further issues… until last night when the same thing happened. This time he was unresponsive for a longer period of time, approx. 15 minutes. He also became combative with the paramedics. He became alert and pretty much back to normal when he got to the ambulance. He doesn’t remember anything about these two events… he can only recall from the point where he became responsive.
He’s been admitted to the hospital again and will undergo another brain scan and his cardiologist will do his testing. The current speculation is that maybe he had a seizure, but I’m not sure what data that’s based on, but it seems plausible.
He’s in his early 70’s and is in fairly good healthy and not that overweight. He’s on blood thinner for a heart issue he had about 20 years ago and has recurring skin cancer, but that’s generally dealt with by removing the effected area of skin and doesn’t seem to have spread.
Any thoughts on what this could be or what’s causing it?
It does sound like sleep walking or paralysis. IANAD but I have had sleep/wake issues for years. But, listen to the docs. Do the tests. I wonder if they tested him for seizures. And what the test is? I may be wrong but can they not tell if you had seizure by some testing procedure? Let us know what happens.
Does he take Ambien? My Daddy has issues with it, it has some weird side effects. Especially if youre not able rest/sleep for a full night, presumably 8hrs.
It looks like they’re going to put him on seizure medication and run further tests. He won’t be able to drive for 6 months to ensure he’s seizure-free. Yeah, I’m not sure how/if they can figure out whether it was a seizure or not.
That sounds like a night terror. My son would have those occasionally when he was very small and they were always scary for us - he’d be completely unresponsive, talking sometimes but really aggressive.
Generally, any seizure lasting over 5 minutes is considered status epilepticus and could cause permanent brain damage so I’m glad they’re trying to control it, whatever it might be. I have epilepsy, but all seizures and seizure types can vary substantially from person to person, but you don’t generally hear about people speaking intelligibly unless they get caught in a loop where they’re repeating the same thing over and over. I wish for your and your family’s sake that it were far more obvious. Good luck to you and your FIL.
Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, to me it sounds like sleepwalking/talking/night terror but I’m no expert in the area. It’s interesting that you mention the brain damage after 5 minutes, because I just found out that he seems to be forgetting that he’s in the hospital today. The signs are starting to point more towards a seizure it seems. Hopefully they can figure out what’s going on and that it can be controlled. Looks like we will be postponing Thanksgiving for a couple days.
Doesn’t sound like night terror to me. Night terror is something that a patient repeats occasionally during their lifetime, not just once. The patient remains very conscious, and wakes up suddenly with an intense feeling of irrational fear, but is otherwise cogent and in self control, and can explain what he is feeling like.
My money is on a TIA, or mini-stroke. Generally, recovery is complete within a day or two. At that point, the doctor will recommend 81mg aspirin daily, to reduce the risk of tiny blood clots occurring in the brain .
The above is based on personal experience. My ex had night terrors, and I’ve had a couple of TIA.
I am a doctor who takes care of a LOT of patients with epilepsy. Given the info you’ve provided, all I can say is that it certainly could be a seizure. But it could be a lot of other things too. I’m not going to grill you about whether they checked a prolactin level after the first episode, or if he was incontinent or bit his tongue during any of this to try to narrow it down, or was on any drugs or meds that lower the seizure threshold; too many questions that I expect you’ll not have the answers to, to bother with.
Sounds like your FIL is in the right place to keep him safe and properly diagnosed now. I hope you get your answers and that he does well.