Doctors are treating my dad like a stroke victim!

[misterl]

My father had a stroke in 2001 that left him with temporary weakness on his left side. We had CT scans at the time that showed it was the third mild stroke he suffered as a result of carotid artery obstruction. He had successful carotid surgery and recovered completely from the effects of the stroke.

In March of this year, he had open heart surgery for a CABG and unfortunately has suffered many complications. He was non-responsive for several days following surgery and was suspected of stroke but was checked with some sort of electronic imaging and given a tentative clear. It turned out that he was suffering from pulmonary edema and marked hypercapnia and had to go to the ICU where he was given a tracheostomy and put on a ventilator. During his three weeks in ICU he was kept totally sedated with propofol and additionally given depakote. When he went to his first rehab hospital, off the propofol he was still very out of it until we insisted the depakote be cut and he returned to speaking to us some and taking interest in his recovery. Unfortunately, he was dehydrated there until he developed colitis and we transferred him to a real hospital with a major GI bleed. They got it under control. but infected him with pseudomonas. He is very sensitive to sedatives but administered them frequently, without our consent. At this hospital, he was again suspected of stroke and given a CT scan. We have a copy of the results of that scan and they read as follows:

5/5/2009 CT HEAD OR BRAIN WITHOUT CONTRAST
1. The patient's head is significantly tilted within the gantry and several of the images are marred by a component of motion artifact
2. Moderate generalized atrophy with evidence of moderate chronic small vessel ischemic change. Chronic infarcts involving the left upper lobe, periventricular white matter and deep gray nuclei again noted bilaterally
3. Stable ventriculomegaly commensurate with degree of atrophy
4. Negative for intracranial hemorrhage
5. Otomastoiditis has developed on the right. Left mastoid effusion also noted

Immediately following this CT scan, we were assured that it cleared him of the possibility of having suffered a stroke. However, the phrase "postoperative stroke" has made its way into his medical records and has been haunting us. My father is very weak and often depressed at his infirmity. Nurses treat him like a baby and it frustrates him. All his life, when he's unhappy he withdraws from people. Ignores them, doesn't speak to them. It's difficult for him to speak on the ventilator and he typically only says a few sentences a week, and only to my mother and myself. Many doctors are treating him like a stroke victim. They try to prescribe medications for stroke victims and treat him as though his cognitive functions are gone. When people treat him like that, he ignores them which only makes them more assured of their diagnoses. The longer he's treated that way, the less he is willing to participate in rehabilitation and it causes us great distress to see him slowly decline in the hands of medical professionals.

Anyway, my question is - is this CT report that we have enough in and of itself to get the "postoperative stroke" removed from his medical records? As I understand it, item 4 says "no recent stroke" but I'm concerned with item 2. Is it too vague? I presume that it refers to the scar tissue present from his 2001 strokes, from which he made a full recovery. The phrase "chronic infarcts" concerns me, perhaps this has been interpreted as ongoing? Does white matter and deep gray nuclei indicate something more than those previous strokes?

Should we hold this report up against the "postoperative stroke" diagnosis? Should we insist on a fresh CT scan? Should we be trying (probably hard) to get CT scan images from 2001? Am I being too optimistic about my fathers mental capacity? He does speak sometimes and during the few weeks out of the last six months that he was home he was looking at magazines and working on operating his tv and bed and lift chair when we placed him in it. He pats us when we ask for assurance. If we can confirm no recent strokes how do we go about getting the phrase "postoperative stroke" removed from his medical records? Should we involve our attorney? We feel it is creating a significant obstacle to his recovery.