Some people will make a full recovery and be completely unaffected by the coma. Others will have disabilities caused by the damage to their brain. They may need physiotherapy, occupational therapy and psychological assessment and support during a period of rehabilitation, and may need care for the rest of their lives.
Someone who is in a coma is unconscious and will not respond to voices, other sounds, or any sort of activity going on nearby. The person is still alive, but the brain is functioning at its lowest stage of alertness. You can't shake and wake up someone who is in a coma like you can someone who has just fallen asleep.
Complications. Although many people gradually recover from a coma, others enter a persistent vegetative state or die. Some people who recover from a coma end up with major or minor disabilities. During a coma, bedsores, urinary tract infections, blood clots in the legs and other problems may develop.
Comas are usually side effects of: Blunt trauma: When the brain swells, causing certain parts of the RAS (reticular activating system) to shut down, this can cause a person to enter a comatose state.
Most individuals that recover from coma exhibit signs of preserved brain function, such as the presence of neurological reflexes. Some neurological reflexes that a doctor may look for in coma patients include: Pupillary reactivity. The pupils should shrink in response to a light being shone in the eyes.
Memory is the slowest part of the conscious mind to recover from an injury. It can be weeks or months before your survivor is able to routinely store new memories. In general, post-traumatic amnesia lasts three to four times longer than the preceding coma.
When someone is braindead, there is no brain activity, not even of the brainstem. When a person is in a coma, his or her brain cells are still alive, but they receive no more signals from other brain cells.
What is a coma? A coma, sometimes also called persistent vegetative state, is a profound or deep state of unconsciousness. Persistent vegetative state is not brain-death. An individual in a state of coma is alive but unable to move or respond to his or her environment.
Brain death: Irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem. A person who is brain dead is dead, with no chance of revival. Coma: A state of profound unresponsiveness as a result of severe illness or brain injury.
Severe brain injury is usually defined as being a condition where the patient has been in an unconscious state for 6 hours or more, or a post-traumatic amnesia of 24 hours or more.
Can Your Loved One Hear You? During a coma, the individual is unconscious, meaning they are unable to respond to any sounds. However, the brain may still be able to pick up on sounds from loved ones. In fact, some studies suggest talking and touching a loved one while they are in a coma may help them recover.
Usually, coma patients have their eyes closed and cannot see what happens around them. But their ears keep receiving sounds from the environment. In some cases, the brains of coma patients can process sounds, for example the voice of someone speaking to them [2].
People in a coma will not age like conscious people living life. Muscles weaken & emaciate. The damaged part of the brain might deteriorate as a result of inflammation to the area.
The person's recovery depends on the cause and severity of the coma, but anyone who falls into a comatose state is at risk of dying. In some cases, there may be a complete recovery with no loss of brain functioning, while in other cases, lifelong brain damage is the result.
This means that unconscious beings are not only cognitively active, but might also experience emotions—both positive and negative.
People in a coma are completely unresponsive. They do not move, do not react to light or sound and cannot feel pain. Their eyes are closed. The brain responds to extreme trauma by effectively 'shutting down'.
Depth of coma
Those who show no motor response have a 3% chance of making a good recovery whereas those who show flexion have a better than 15% chance.
There's a difference between brain death and a vegetative state, which can occur after extensive brain damage. Someone in a vegetative state can show signs of wakefulness – for example, they may open their eyes, but not respond to their surroundings.
A comatose patient may open his eyes, move and even cry while still remaining unconscious. His brain-stem reflexes are attached to a nonfunctioning cortex. Reflex without reflection. Many professionals speak of this condition as a ''persistent vegetative state.
A case of pituitary coma with continuing menstruation is presented. This association is extremely rare, but a history of recent menstrual periods does not exclude advanced hypopituitarism from the differential diagnosis of severe hyponatraemia.
Brain cells are extremely sensitive to oxygen deprivation and can begin to die within five minutes after oxygen supply has been cut off.
Typically, a coma does not last more than a few days or couple of weeks. In some rare cases, a person might stay in a coma for several weeks, months or even years. Depending on what caused the person to go into a coma, some patients are able to return to their normal lives after leaving the hospital.
An unexpected discovery made by an international team, examining the results of an EEG on an elderly patient, who died suddenly of a heart attack while the test was in progress.
It often shows up suddenly, within hours or days. Some features of delirium include having trouble focusing (called inattention), sudden changes in behavior, and confusion. For most people, delirium doesn't last long – usually only a few days.