In the longer term, healthcare staff will give supportive treatment on a hospital ward. A person in a coma may become restless, requiring care to prevent them from hurting themselves or attempting to pull on tubes or dressings. In these instances, medicine may be given to calm the patient. Side rails on the bed should be kept up to prevent the patient from falling.
While not empirically validated, families have reported benefits from arousal regimes, such as those implemented by Dr Ted Freeman eg Coma Arousal Therapy. The therapy involves family members taking the patient through a regimen of controlled auditory, visual and physical stimulation for up to six hours a day, every day. 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.
Some patients e. They may need physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychological assessment and support during a period of rehabilitation and may need care for the rest of their lives. Patients can gradually come out of the coma, some progress to a vegetative state aka unresponsive wakefulness syndrome and others die.
Some patients who have entered a vegetative state go on to regain a degree of awareness see Minimally Conscious State. It can result from injury to the brain, such as a severe head injury or stroke. A coma can also be caused by severe alcohol poisoning or a brain infection encephalitis. People with diabetes could fall into a coma if their blood glucose levels suddenly became very low hypoglycaemia or very high hyperglycaemia.
You may find the following information useful if you have a friend or loved one who is in a coma. Someone who is in a coma is unconscious and has minimal brain activity. They're alive but can't be woken up and show no signs of awareness. The person's eyes will be closed and they'll appear to be unresponsive to their environment. They won't normally respond to sound or pain, or be able to communicate or move voluntarily, and basic reflexes, such as coughing and swallowing, will be greatly reduced.
They may be able to breathe on their own, although some people require a machine to help them breathe. Over time, the person may start to gradually regain consciousness and become more aware.
Some people will wake up after a few weeks, while others may go into a vegetative or minimally conscious state. These reactions can inform medical doctors of whether the patients will awake from the coma. Imagine a person who has fallen into a coma. A coma can occur from many causes, such as a traumatic brain injury, a stroke, or maybe loss of oxygen from a near drowning.
The comatose person is lying still on the bed, with eyes closed. The person does not show any sign of communication with the environment. We speak to the comatose person, but he or she does not respond and seems indifferent to everything that is happening. When a person is in a coma, this person is in what we call an unconscious state. But is the brain of a coma patient still working? There is a good chance that the brain of a person in a coma continues to process events from the environment, for example the footsteps of someone approaching or the sound of your voice when you speak to them [ 1 ].
To measure the brain activity of a person in a coma, we use a tool called electroencephalography EEG. EEG helps us record the activity of cells in the brain called neurons. These electrodes are inside a cap. Imagine something like a swimming cap with a lot of holes in it.
Electrodes are inserted into these holes and touch the skin of the scalp. Every time that we see or hear something, neurons in the brain fire. This firing can change the electrical activity that we measure on the head with EEG.
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 ].
The hospital staff also tries to prevent bedsores in someone who is comatose. Bedsores are open sores on the body that come from lying in one place for too long without moving at all. It can be very upsetting and frustrating for a person's family to see someone they love in a coma, and they may feel scared and helpless. But they can help take care of the person. Taking time to visit the hospital and read to, talk to, and even play music for the patient are important because it's possible that the person may be able to hear what's going on, even if he or she can't respond.
Usually, a coma does not last more than a few weeks. Sometimes, however, a person stays in a coma for a long time — even years — and will be able to do very little except breathe on his or her own.
Most people do come out of comas. Some of them are able to return to the normal lives they had before they got sick.
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