Our six year old daughter Olivia had to go to hospital after having
several episodes of right sided weakness in her arm, leg and face. Her
speech was slurred as one side of the face drooped.. The episodes
lasted 2-3 minutes and completely resolved with no remaining deficit.
She has had a CT scan and MRI which revealed that the initial episode
was due to a left sided lentiform nucleus and internal capsule
infarct. Subsequent episodes were an epileptic type event which have
been brought to a halt by loading with phenytoin and a daily dose of
carbazepine. So far all tests are normal. She has been tested for
blood clotting conditions, had an EEG,ECG and heart ultrasound scan,
lumbar puncture and eye scan. The MRI confirmed the CT's discovery of
the infarct and that she has a normal circle of Willis. There are some
tests still to come back but the thought is that it may have been
triggered by the chickenpox virus which she had about eight weeks
previously. My question is, should there be no cause found other than
this, i.e no blood clotting issues, no heart or brain blood supply
defects what is the chance of a second or subsequent stroke happening?
The only reoccurrence stats that I can find on the net, group all
categories of suffererers together e.g children with sickle cell
disease, heart defects etc. If there is no fundamental underlying
cause is she really any more likely to have another stroke that just
any normal healthy six year old? Any other information about epileptic
type problems in children brought on by strokes would be appreciated. |
