Subarachnoid hemorrhage/carotid artery occlusion: Dementia sooner?

@chrismac- welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. That is excellent that you have a good understanding of your family's medical history.

If I understand correctly, you'd like to know if you have an increased risk of dementia due to the subarachnoid hemorrhage/carotid artery occlusion? If so, is this something you discussed with your doctor at the time of your diagnosis, by chance? If so, what did the doctor say about that?

Hi Chris-
My sister, who will be 60 next month, suffered from a sub arachnoid brain hemorrhage April 2, 2026. To this day, she does not speak, has not stood on her feet & is occasionally out in a chair. Mostly sitting up right in the bed only. Is this similar to what you experienced and how far along have you come with this life changing situation?

@cuspid8zzz - welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I'm sorry to hear about your sister and her sub arachnoid brain hemorrhage. I, too, would be troubled if my sister no longer spoke, stood to her feet and only occasionally got out of a chair.

Hoping that @chrismac will have some input for you on how things went with the subarachnoid hemorrhage/carotid artery occlusion and whether any of your sister's situation sounds familiar. I'm also tagging @carol1024 @ourlife2017 @jeannie7. @hopeful33250 @lakelifelady also may have some thoughts for you.

Would you say you have witnessed any progress in your sister's condition since the beginning of April? If so, what improvements have you seen thus far?

@cuspid8zzz it's only been almost 2 months for her. I had mine in 2011 and was in neurological ICU at Shands in Gainesville FL for 8 days. I did not need surgery but my doctor said he could give me an excuse for a year off work if I wanted. I remember thinking, who needs a year off work, I feel fine. I did however take 2 weeks off. After I returned to work, I knew what the doctor meant by saying, indirectly, that it would take a year for me to fully recover. It did take that long and I did not have any kind of surgery. I'm not sure if your sister did but if so, it's going to take time. You can always chatGPT that question too. (I thought my daughter was crazy when she told me about that but it's really great at putting things in simple, true form about my cancer that I can understand. My daughter is a nurse too). You should have paper reports that tell you what part of the brain was affected. Does she get up to restroom or use a bed pan or have catheter? If it's the part that has to do with speech, she may be wanting to and in fact trying to talk, especially when she's alone, but can't get anything out. Is she aware of things? Can she write to communicate? Is she able to feed herself and communicate that she's hungry? Does she watch TV and understand what she's seeing? Different parts of the brain are responsible for all these things and if she's able to do any or most of them then I think the rest of the brain will catch up. It's just going to take time. It also means that those parts of the brain still work and try to think of things to do with her that will exercise the brain or force her to think. Minor games like guessing whether a card is red or black. Think childhood games. Take turns stacking blocks. Make a fun game out of things. Force the brain to catch up and fire on all cylinders but go slow. She will lead you. I wish you all the luck and pray things return to as normal as they can. It's going to take patience.
Best wishes. God Bless. 🙏🏻❤️

@cuspid8zzz I am sorry to hear of your sister's stroke. Is she still in the hospital or in a rehab facility? Share a little about what treatments she has had since her stroke in April. For example, has she had surgery, any physical therapy, or speech therapy?

I hope your sister begins to show improvement. Will you continue to post and keep in touch?

@hopeful33250
Thank you. She did have immediate surgery to drain the fluid from the brain on day (April 2nd) she went to emergency room. Drs mentioned it was an abnormal formed Venus vein that ruptured. No paralysis. However, she has no voice. She has been in hospital since this happened. 2 wks ago she was moved to an extended care facility. Eventually she will need to be in Pat’s/Occ/ Speech therapy. Her husband and our family are not familiar with any of this condition. She does not feed herself, does not stand (unless on a machine -happens maybe once a week) or even sits in a chair for a couple of hrs (with a lift -once a week). I ask the Drs if they are satisfied with her progress (because we feel her progress is very slow) and they say they are very satisfied. I read it takes a while. We’ve been working with her (she is 60 yrs old)
Helping her lift arm to wipe face/ place a fork in her hand to get reacquainted with feeding herself- etc. some days she will try doing this, but other days she does not. I know she is extremely weak after being in bed for so long. It’s just very heart wrenching watching her go through this. Are you familiar with this type of case, by chance? Thank you for reaching out.

@lisalucier
Hi Lisa- Thank you!
She awoke from the induced coma about 2 weeks after the draining of fluid. Yes, I would say she has improved since then. She is still quite weak. She will move her lips to familiar tunes. She will lift fork to mouth occasionally. Once started, she will finish wiping her face. She opens and closes the cap on tubes/water bottles. Thanks again.