Schroeder’s Hemorrhage Was 2nd Stroke : Artificial Heart Recipient Awakens; His Right Side Is Weakened

William J. Schroeder was awake but not talking Wednesday as a hospital spokeswoman confirmed that a second stroke, caused by bleeding in the brain, had weakened the artificial heart recipient’s right side.

Schroeder’s speech was impaired by a stroke in mid-December. Doctors did not know yet whether Monday’s stroke further limited his ability to speak, said Donna Hazle, public relations director at Humana Hospital Audubon.

“The bleeding occurred from the left base of the brain to the left frontal lobe,” she said. Nerve centers that control speech and movement for the right side of the body are located in the area.

Damage Not Determined

“The physicians have not determined the extent of possible brain damage,” she said.

Schroeder suffered a hemorrhagic stroke, which doctors defined as “bleeding inside the brain tissue which results from a leaking blood vessel or a blocked blood vessel with bleeding below the blockage,” Hazle said.

Weakness in Schroeder’s right arm and leg was “partly due to the old stroke and has been aggravated by the recent bleeding,” Hazle said.

His condition remained unchanged, critical but stable, and Hazle said Schroeder was responsive to his wife, nurses and doctors by, for example, squeezing a hand upon command.

“He seems to be gradually improving,” she said.

Schroeder’s treatment will include “quiet bed rest” and an arteriogram at a later date to check for bloodstream clots which could travel to the brain and cause another stroke, she said.

Dr. William C. DeVries has decided against resuming anti-clotting medication, which was stopped Monday in an effort to halt the bleeding, she said.

Without such anti-clotting agents, the 53-year-old Schroeder has a greater risk of another stroke. The one he suffered Dec. 13 left him confined to a wheelchair and able to speak only a few whispered words.

Schroeder, a retired munitions inspector from Jasper, Ind., who received his artificial heart Nov. 25, was readmitted Monday to Audubon, which had discharged him exactly one month before to a nearby patient halfway house to make him the first bionic heart patient to live outside a hospital.

Another heart patient, Murray P. Haydon, 58, of Louisville, received his Jarvik-7 heart Feb. 17. He has never left Audubon and his breathing has been aided by a respirator since March 18 because of lung complications related to numerous blood transfusions.

Two other recipients, Jack C. Burcham and Barney Clark, both died.