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What Causes Sudden Fainting?
I am 82. I fell in the yard while watering flowers. On June11, I fell directly on my face. I do not remember falling until the second before impact. I saw green grass, heard a thud, moved my head as sunglasses nose piece cut my nose in 3 places. My garden hose was on spray setting and was spraying on my body. I laid there several minutes, then checked to see if I had anything broken. My face began to swell as I hit my right eye socket, right chest area. I began to roll toward the garden hose reel container, when I neighbor appeared. He got me a lawn chair si I could pull myself up and sit down. My nose had blood clots hanging and neighbor s cleaned me. My doctor and I cannot find a cause of my falling. I had ekg, neurology exam, and a 24 hour EKG. I am going to PT and slowly getting better. My DPT, is a doctor of PT. she uses Grafton tools and message and exercises. Next week she will do dry needles treatment. I do not remember falling, Ido not remember if I was dizzy. We are trying to figure out why I fell. It was 1:30 PM. I did not trip, I just found myself face down and had fallen Any suggestions?
Mon, 21 Aug 2017
Greetings
Welcome to Healthcaremagic.
Well there are 2 important points in the information you have provided.
Firstly due to advanced age there are increased chances of brain or heart issues. And secondly is the problem of impaired memory and only few minutes of altered consciousness.
As far as you age is concerned ,there are more chances of heart problems like a heart attack or a problem in the electrical activity which we call as rhythm disturbances.This condition many times cause brief changes in consciousness ,however they may lead to serious problems if not treated in time. Fortunately you had disturbed consciousness only for a brief time. In that case EKG might help in diagnosing the problem if there are rhythm disturbances like Third degree heart block or any changes signifying new or old heart attacks. For that an old EKG would be helpful. I would suggest to get an Echocardiography and an Exercise Tolerance Test if your physician suspects a cardiac issue.
Then comes the concern of Brain vessel problems . There are 2 types of issues that can happen in the elderly . First is the temporary disturbances in the blood flow to the brain or fixed blockage or leakage of the vessels. As you had just a brief loss of consciousness and a normal neurologic exam,fortunately you might have had the temporary type of the vessel problem which we call as Transient Ischemic attack. But having said that a an MRI of the brain vessels called as MRA and the doppler ultrasonography of the carotid must be done in order to identify the cause of fainting and prevent them in the future.
I hope the answer was helpful. In case you need any further help feel free to contact us in writing .
Regards
Dr Talal Hussain
Welcome to Healthcaremagic.
Well there are 2 important points in the information you have provided.
Firstly due to advanced age there are increased chances of brain or heart issues. And secondly is the problem of impaired memory and only few minutes of altered consciousness.
As far as you age is concerned ,there are more chances of heart problems like a heart attack or a problem in the electrical activity which we call as rhythm disturbances.This condition many times cause brief changes in consciousness ,however they may lead to serious problems if not treated in time. Fortunately you had disturbed consciousness only for a brief time. In that case EKG might help in diagnosing the problem if there are rhythm disturbances like Third degree heart block or any changes signifying new or old heart attacks. For that an old EKG would be helpful. I would suggest to get an Echocardiography and an Exercise Tolerance Test if your physician suspects a cardiac issue.
Then comes the concern of Brain vessel problems . There are 2 types of issues that can happen in the elderly . First is the temporary disturbances in the blood flow to the brain or fixed blockage or leakage of the vessels. As you had just a brief loss of consciousness and a normal neurologic exam,fortunately you might have had the temporary type of the vessel problem which we call as Transient Ischemic attack. But having said that a an MRI of the brain vessels called as MRA and the doppler ultrasonography of the carotid must be done in order to identify the cause of fainting and prevent them in the future.
I hope the answer was helpful. In case you need any further help feel free to contact us in writing .
Regards
Dr Talal Hussain
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