Check out this update on Bret Michaels from Tonic.com
The 47-year-old Poison frontman and diabetes activist has left the hospital more than a week after suffering a potentially catastrophic stroke.
bret-michaels.jpgIn true rock star form, Bret Michaels didn’t show up at his own press conference Tuesday. But he could have.
The Poison frontman and fierce champion of diabetes research has beaten the odds almost two weeks after undergoing major surgery to repair brain damage caused by a subarachnoid hemorrhage. According to doctors, the 47-year-old has left the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.
“He’s just one of those lucky people, the 20 percent or so who have a subarachnoid hemorrhage who make a complete recovery, and are able to resume all of their normal activities,” Dr. Joseph Zabramski, chief of cerebrovascular surgery at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, said during Tuesday’s press conference.
“I really expect that he will fortunately make a 100 percent recovery.”
Michaels’ prospects weren’t so hot when he was hospitalized on April 22 with a headache that he reportedly described as “getting hit with a baseball bat again and again.” The condition proved to be a type of stroke the Merck Manual describes as having a 50 percent survival rate during the first few weeks after incident.
The survival rate is even lower if a brain aneurysm — the weakening and widening of an artery — follows the stroke. Repeated tests on Michaels have failed to turn up any evidence of an aneurysm, say doctors.
But the fight of Michaels’ life isn’t totally over. There’s still a blood clot in his brain that doctors say will take 7 to 10 days to completely dissolve. It’s a painful process that causes back pain and headaches, and it’s particularly painful for Michaels due to his diabetes. Unlike others with the condition, known as chemical meningitis, diabetics cannot fight the pain with steroids because of the drug’s affect on glucose levels. But the good news Tuesday far outweighs the bad.
“Right now he should be celebrating,” Zabramski said.
Knowing Bret, he probably is.
