According to the American Heart Association, in the United States over 795,000 people suffered a stroke in the past year. In a recently published study, Swedish researchers found that the health effects of a stroke not only affect the stroke survivor, but also negatively affect the physical and mental health of their partners as well.

Swedish researchers followed nearly 250 caregiving partners of stroke survivors and found they scored lower on tests measuring their mental and physical health than did people with healthy spouses. In addition, the vitality and social life of stroke survivors’ partners also suffered, immediately and for years following the stroke.

“Our results…highlight the impact on the spouses’ mental health due to demanding changes in the life situations of these families, not only during the first years after stroke onset but also in the long term,” lead researcher and study author Josefine Persson said in a press release. “It is important for the society to provide support to the spouses to prevent or reduce the burden of stress and strain.”

The study was published online in the August 20, 2015 edition of the journal Stroke, and is available here:

[Spouses of Stroke Survivors Report Reduced Health-Related Quality of Life Even in Long-Term Follow-Up](http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/46/9/2584)

I cannot help but think that the findings of this research likely directly correlate to spouses of individuals who have suffered a catastrophic injury due to medical negligence. The spouses and parents of individuals injured through medical negligence generally have life long debilitating injuries. The effects of those injuries have an affect on their loved ones.

In fact, Washington law has long recognized that the effects of an injury extend beyond the injured individual to their spouse and children. See for example RCW 4.56.250, which defines non-economic damages as: “…subjective, nonmonetary losses, including, but not limited to pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, disability or disfigurement incurred by the injured party, emotional distress, loss of society and companionship, loss of consortium, injury to reputation and humiliation, and destruction of the parent-child relationship.”

More research in this area would likely reveal that the spouse caregivers of individuals who suffer a catastrophic injury due to medical negligence experience similar negative health consequences that the caregiver spouses of stroke victims experience. Indeed, the observations and experience of this firm have repeatedly demonstrated this correlation.