Doctor Info

Kathleen Davey had a cardiac arrest on Sat. morning, January 24, around 10 a.m. Samie, the Davey’s 6 –year-old daughter, called 911. Police arrived at the house within around 4 minutes after the call and immediately administered CPR. An EMT unit then arrived about 4-5 minutes later and revived her heart with a defibrillator and rushed her to Valley Medical Center in San Jose.

When she arrived in Emergency at Valley Medical, her Glasgow Scale was 3. Doctors feared that she would die that night and last rights were given. She was judged to have an anoxic ischemic brain injury. Over the course of the next 72 hours her brain began to swell and a CT scan revealed it swelled to her skull but did not herniat out the back. She was put on the sedatives and anti-seizure medications Dilantin, Kepra, and Propofil. She was weaned off of Propofil for an EEG test that showed abnormal yet fairly active brain activity. Kathleen had three confirmed seizures and increased clonus activity and her Propofil level was raised to 150. Nurses were told to administer ativan at the signs of shaking (not knowing whether or not the shaking was clonus or seizures). She was weaned off of Propofil and replaced by Phenobarbital. She was essentially in a drug-induced coma for the first 15 days. During those 15 days the Glasgow Scale went up to 6. . She developed a blood clot (Deep Vein Strombosis) in her left shoulder. She was administered blood-thinner medication. She was then transferred to Kaiser.

At Kaiser, Kathleen was taken off of Phenobarbital and Dilantin. She was then administered a Peg tube and a Trach and then weaned off of the ventilator. Glasgow Scale is now at 8/9. She moves her appendages. She can focus on objects and snap to objects but she is not tracking. She is making some purposeful movement and shows some facial expressions in consistent fashion. Kathleen is on blood pressure medication as her blood pressure was a little high for the past few days and has fought off and on with MRSA. She is mostly stable and her doctors are weaning her to breath through her nose with the trach plugged. Her Glasgow Scale is around a 9. The family is with her at least 18 hours a day and has a programmed stimulation schedule which includes rest breaks.

Though Kathleen has not “plateaued” her progress has slowed in the past two weeks.

Her MRI showed her ventricles and sulci are enlarged consistent with brain atrophy. Non –specific areas of increased FLAIR signal cortically most prominently in the bi-lateral occipital lobes with possible faint prominent thin cortical enhancement. There are no signs of demyelination.

She is in a Coma Vigil. Recently Kathleen has been showing emotions on her face usually in response to the same stimuli and trying to turn herself off her back. Though her eyes move side to side and often move toward sounds she has not begun to track. Kathleen also does not respond to “threat tests”. She does hear as represented by blinking or turning toward the sounds/voices. Kathleen is said to be a 2 on the Rancho Los Amigos brain injury scale.