What is the longest someone has been in a coma?

6, 1941, 6-year-old Elaine Esposito went to the hospital for a routine appendectomy. She went under general anesthetic and never came out. Dubbed the "sleeping beauty," Esposito stayed in a coma for 37 years and 111 days before succumbing in 1978 — the longest-ever coma, according to Guinness World Records.

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What is the longest someone has been in a coma for and woke up?

Annie Shapiro (1913–2003) was a Canadian apron shop owner who was in a coma for 29 years because of a massive stroke and suddenly awakened in 1992. Apart from the patients in the true story Awakenings, Shapiro was the longest a person has been in a coma like state and woken up.

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What was the longest coma to exist?

Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Elaine Esposito (December 3, 1934 – November 25, 1978) held the record for the longest period of time in a coma according to Guinness World Records, having lost consciousness in 1941 and eventually dying in that condition more than 37 years later.

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Can a coma last for 10 years?

While comas usually only last a few weeks, a vegetative state can continue for months or even years. The longer the person remains in this state, the bleaker their chances of making a recovery.

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Can a coma last 7 years?

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.

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11/25/07: Awakening

25 related questions found

Can coma patients cry?

A person may appear fine, but will not able to speak or respond to commands. Spontaneous movements may occur, and the eyes may open in response to external stimuli. Individuals may even occasionally grimace, cry, or laugh.

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Do you dream in a coma?

Whether they dream or not probably depends on the cause of the coma. If the visual cortex is badly damaged, visual dreams will be lost; if the auditory cortex is destroyed, then they will be unable to hear dreamed voices.

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Is it possible for a person to be in a coma for 20 years?

Most comas do not last for more than two to four weeks, but there are patients who have woken after decades. The story of how Munira Abdulla spontaneously woke from a coma after 27 years has shed light on how someone could come back to life after decades of unconsciousness.

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How does a coma feel?

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'.

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What is the longest coma without dying?

On Aug. 6, 1941, 6-year-old Elaine Esposito went to the hospital for a routine appendectomy. She went under general anesthetic and never came out. Dubbed the "sleeping beauty," Esposito stayed in a coma for 37 years and 111 days before succumbing in 1978 — the longest-ever coma, according to Guinness World Records.

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How do people in comas eat?

Someone in a coma needs intensive care in hospital. They may need help with breathing, they will be fed through a tube and they will receive blood and fluids through a drip inserted into the vein.

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What is waking up from a coma like?

People who do wake up from a coma usually come round gradually. They may be very agitated and confused to begin with. 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.

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Why do people go into comas?

It can have a variety of causes, including traumatic head injury, stroke, brain tumor, or drug or alcohol intoxication. A coma may even be caused by an underlying illness, such as diabetes or an infection. Coma is a medical emergency. Quick action is needed to preserve life and brain function.

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What do people see in a coma?

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].

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Who was the longest person on life support?

Several years ago, the autopsy report of a totally brain-dead patient named TK who was kept on life support for nearly twenty years was published in the Journal of Child Neurology. He remains the individual kept on life support the longest after suffering total brain failure.

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Do you grow while in a coma?

Yes, your body does grow while you're in a coma. Your body is constantly transmitting chemical signals from the brainstem and thalamus to the cerebrum—basically where 85% of your brain mass is situated.

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What are coma dreams like?

A: Many people who have woken up from comas have reported having dreams in which they saw something from the outer world. Others have had dreams that seemed to stretch on and on. A person's ability to dream is most likely determined by the underlying medical condition that put them in a coma.

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Can a coma last a few hours?

Comas may last from a few hours to years. Comas outwardly resemble a state of deep sleep, but are actually quite more complex. A good working definition is that a coma is a state of unresponsiveness from which an individual has not yet been aroused.

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What is the life expectancy of coma?

Prognosis (outlook for recovery)

Comas can last from days to weeks while some severe cases have lasted several years. Recovery depends, to a considerable extent, on the original cause of the coma and on the severity of any brain damage.

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How much does it cost to have a coma?

Over a 30-day ICU time period, the incremental cost of persistent daily delirium or coma attributable to increased service intensity is about $18,000. This is about $600 per day, however, this cost is variable depending on the day in the ICU, with the highest costs occurring after the first week.

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What happened to Sarah Scantlin?

Sarah died of respiratory issues and failing blood pressure on May 20, 2016.

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Do people in coma age?

the cellular mechanism for ageing has been associated with progressive shortening of telomere length on the ends of each chromosome with each cell cycle.. in the contect of this, a coma wouldnt necessarily keep you young, but you would age just the same.

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Do people dream in color?

When awakened while dreaming, people rend to report that their dreams contained vivid colors seventy percent of the time and vague color 13 percent of the time, but outside of scientific studies, only 25 to 29 percent of people say that they dream in color. So many of us do dream in color but don't properly remember.

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How many calories do I burn in a coma?

Basically how many calories does someone in a coma burn? It depends on person's size, age, and Metabolism. it typically ranges from 1200 - 1800 calories/ day for adults.

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