Week 3: Part 2

I (practically) saved a life!
I had been seeing a patient for language therapy for about a week. Non-fluent aphasic. He moved from the acute floor to the rehab floor on Wednesday, so I did the BDAE (Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination) with him. Then Thursday, I saw him for our first official therapy session (on the acute floor, it's more informal). Well, he was very different that day, practically nonverbal! He couldn't even repeat. I was concerned so I called my supervisor from her office to help. She came and did some of her own eval with him, like having him repeat automatic sequences (which I forgot to check!). She was concerned as well, and called his doctor in. Doctor did her eval (which was neat to watch), and decided to call the neurologist in. So yesterday we got some preliminary results- they think he had another stroke.

It made me feel so useful, because the PT, OT, and nurses all saw him earlier that day and didn't notice anything! They thought that's the way he talked. It took a speech path student to recognize something was very wrong!