| |
You are here: Experts > Health/Fitness > Medical Specialists > Heart & Cardiology > Emotions after a triple bypass
Expert: David Richardson - 11/10/2009
Question
My father had a triple bypass in June of this year. His recovery was very quick and he was back to normal within 2 weeks. He went back to his business and riding his Harley. But my mother and i noticed he was super sensitive about little things. getting angry and irratated quickly, crying if things were a little to stressful. These are not normal emotions for my father to express. For awhile i just brushed it off as a mid-life crisis (he turned 50 in September) and his ego being hurt from having to have the surgery, but now things have become worse. His emotions have become so irrational that he has left my mother, after 22 years of marriage. I guess what my question is, could my father be suffering from some type of post surgery depression that is causing him to push loved ones away, and how do i convince him to go get help?
Answer
Dear Diana,
Yes. Post-surgery depression, or loss of some control mechanisms in the brain as the result of micro-emboli coming to the brain from the heart-lung bypass machine. Please get him to a psychiatrist, perhaps telling him that he needs to find out if any damage to his brain occurred during surgery.
Please write back if this note doesn't answer all your questions.
David Richardson
Add to this Answer Ask a Question
|
|
