Judy’s son has been noticing that his mother has been getting more forgetful and that the forgetfulness began very quickly and is getting worse. she has begun having difficulty with speech, so judy went to the doctor who diagnosed her with a stroke. what was the doctor’s diagnosis regarding her memory loss?

She may have dementia. or, if she kept having strokes, it can cause her memory to worsen. one stroke reduces blood flow to the brain, so if one stroke reduces flow to the hippocampus, and another, and another, eventually, it will be very damaged. there are many different types of dementia that she may have, but the most likely one is probably vascular dementia, which is when the patient has multiple transient ischemic attacks (mini strokes) which over time cause more and more damage to the brain, leading to dementia. when one has a TIA, their risk of having a full-blown stroke is increased greatly, so she may have had a stroke after having multiple TIAs.