Hemiplegia then cerebral thrombosis

[spison]

I have just received a death certificate which gives the cause of death as:

1(a) Hemiplegia (which she had had for 15 days)

1(b) cerebral thrombosis

Am I correct in reading this as a stroke followed 15 days late by another, more severe, stroke?

Jane

[kaysii]

Hemiplegia means paralysis of one side of the body.
Cerebral thrombosis is caused by blockage of the blood supply to the brain or in other words a stroke. So the cause of death is paralysis due to a stroke.

Kaysii

[esdel]

I have just received a death certificate which gives the cause of death as:

1(a) Hemiplegia (which she had had for 15 days)

1(b) cerebral thrombosis

Am I correct in reading this as a stroke followed 15 days late by another, more severe, stroke?

Jane

Yes you are right - unless you'd like to know more.

Hemiplegia is a condition of paralysis (plegia) of one side (hemi) of the body.
Often this is caused by obstruction of blood flow (no oxygen to muscles)
This often is a "blood clot" with fragments or new clots travelling around in the blood until they reach the (narrower) blood vessels in the brain. There they impede the blood supply and pressure will result with probably bursting of the blood vessels; what they call cerebral thrombosis

[kaysii]

I have just received a death certificate which gives the cause of death as:

1(a) Hemiplegia (which she had had for 15 days)

1(b) cerebral thrombosis

Am I correct in reading this as a stroke followed 15 days late by another, more severe, stroke?

Jane

Just to clarify, the hemiplegia was caused by the cerebral thrombosis. You cannot tell from the above if in her last illness she had a series of strokes or just one. I don't know when the above death was certified, but currently, the first should be the direct cause of death (which normally hemiplegia would not be) and the subsequent one the underlying cause and if there are any other contributing factors these would come last.

Thrombosis is referring to blockage in the blood vessels and not bleeding. Strokes can be caused by haemorrhage (bleeding), especially when associated with hypertension (high blood pressure).
Kaysii

[spison]

Thankyou Kaysii and Edsel for clarifying the fine details,

(Sorry. Should have said the certificate was NSW in the 1940s.)

Jane