Hi,
Thank you for posting your query.
Your friend most likely suffered from cardio-respiratory arrest, leading to reduced blood and
oxygen supply to brain. Loss of blood and oxygen supply to brain results in damage to vital brain areas, including the areas for memory.
The chances of recovery of short term and long term memory depends on the extent of damage to brain, which in turn depends on the duration of stoppage of heart.
In any case, we expect recovery over time.
I hope my reply has helped you.
I would be pleased to answer, if you have any follow up queries or if you require any further information.
Best wishes,
Dr Sudhir Kumar MD (Internal Medicine), DM (Neurology)
Senior Consultant Neurologist
Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad,
For DIRECT QUERY to me: http://bit.ly/Dr-Sudhir-kumar
My blog: http://bestneurodoctor.blogspot.com/