A family friend just had heart surgery and now has trouble talking and movement on her right side. How can I help her?

Thank you for your help. I check with the medical staff at her rehab center and they said she has some swelling in her brain and they are giving her medicine to eliminate it and as the swelling goes down she should start coming back to normal.

How long ago was her heart surgery?

Is she in a rehab facility?

There is something called Post Operative Cognitive Disorder (POCD) that is seen especially after heart surgery (but is seen after other surgeries as well). I don't know much about it, I've just heard about it, but it's not the typical effect that anesthesia has on someone since anesthesia is gone from the body after 24 hours. POCD is something else and affects the mental and emotional function of the person post-surgery. Someone came up with it to describe the effects of surgery on people of advanced age. It's not the typical confusion that's seen right after surgery when the person is still under the effects of anesthesia. It lasts longer than that.

Has she been examined thoroughly by medical staff? Has she been given a cognitive test? If you don't think she's acting normal get someone to look at her. You know better than the staff does if she's not acting right.

Please take note that when someone over 60 has surgery that requires anesthesia, 90% of such patients will have some type of delirium [30% for those who are a lot younger].... this is very common.

I remember reading that for every hour that someone is under anesthesia, it will take one month for each hour before the patient is back to having a clear mind. I witnessed that for myself when I had surgery last year, I was in a fog for about a month for an one hour surgery.