Once a person develops left side neglect, will this usually be permanent or can it be a temporary condition?
Left side neglect is a fascinating neurological problem in which the patient lacks full awareness of his left side or part of the left side, as well as diminished awareness of inanimate objects that are leftward relative to wherever the person is in space at the moment.
My mother had left side neglect as a result of a chronic subdural hematoma on the right region of her brain that had resulted from hitting her head from a fall (in combination with being senior-aged and, most likely, the blood thinner she was on at the time).
Left neglect is more commonly the result of a stroke to the right area of the brain.
In the case of my mother, the problem was temporary.
But it had us unnerved when we realized the extent of it, after she was moved to a skilled nursing facility, a less-controlled, less-restricted environment than a hospital room where she spent just about all her time in bed.
If you clicked on this article, you already know what “left neglect” is, and most likely have been diagnosed with it, or know someone who has.
In the case of a stroke, left side neglect can be permanent, because a stroke is caused by oxygen depletion to brain cells, and once brain cells are starved long enough from oxygen, they cannot be brought back to life.
In my mother’s case, blood and cerebrospinal fluid were on the surface of her brain; the cells were still getting oxygen, but this fluid was creating a veil or fog over the cells, impairing neurological functioning.
As her body resorbed the fluid, the symptoms of the spatial neglect began disappearing.
The spatial neglect, at its worst, affected my mother’s ability to use a walker, maintain a linear walking path, and make turns without bumping the left side of the walker into baseboards.
Her left hand was orthopedically able to hold onto the walker, but it would keep slipping off because she lacked sufficient awareness of that side.
She’d end up trying to use the walker with one hand. But even when both hands were on it, she’d accidentally bump the walker into walls on the left side.
She was off the walker by evening; it was an impediment, actually, yet when she walked down the corridor, she had a tendency to veer to the right, and had no interest in anything to the left.
At the hospital in her room, seating for visitors was to her left, and often, she “ignored” me when I spoke to her when to her left, unless I raised my voice to call her name, and then she’d look at me as though suddenly hearing me.
I’d also get her attention by moving closer and more in front of her, though at the time, I didn’t know that this was the spatial neglect at work.
Currently, there is no sign of left side neglect in my mother, and the physical therapist who visited her home recently for an assessment, said that my mother didn’t need any home visits with a physical therapist, even.
Her left neglect did not disappear overnight, but there was a spike in improvement about 10 days after she was diagnosed with it.
When she came home from the nursing facility, she still had a tendency to drop things occasionally with the hand, but that problem soon disappeared.
At present, you’d never know that my mother once had a bizarre neurological phenomenon known as left neglect, also called spatial neglect.
In hindsight, I realize that left side neglect was at work prior to her second burr hole drain for the hematoma; at home she stated she wanted to lie on the futon in the dining room. From the kitchen this requires a left turn.
She exited the kitchen and began entering the living room, which is right. I had to physically steer her left into the dining room; classic left side neglect, fascinating phenomenon.
Left side neglect can be mild, moderate or severe. If you know someone with this condition, or have it yourself, there is hope, as there are multitudes of therapies to help overcome this condition.
