What is the average time in a coma

But a coma is a serious condition that has nothing to do with sleep. 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.

When one of these things happens, it can mess up how the brain's cells work. This can hurt the parts of the brain that make someone conscious, and if those parts stop working, the person will stay unconscious. Someone in a coma usually needs to be cared for in the intensive care unit ICU of the hospital. There, the person can get extra care and attention from doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff.

They make sure the person gets fluids, nutrients, and any medicines needed to keep the body as healthy as possible. These are sometimes given through a tiny plastic tube inserted in a vein or through a feeding tube that brings fluids and nutrients directly to the stomach. Some comatose people are unable to breathe on their own and need the help of a ventilator say: VEN-tih-lay-ter , a machine that pumps air into the lungs through a tube placed in the windpipe. The hospital staff also tries to prevent bedsores in someone who is comatose.

And chances are good that further recovery will occur. In some instances, a person who is VS or MCS may be admitted to a rehab hospital for a short stay weeks for family teaching and the development of needed rehab equipment. At least one of the following criteria must be clearly evident on bedside examination: 1. Those observations are then used to fill out measurement scales. Different scales are used in different settings. Two measurement scales that are important to life saving, establishing a prognosis, and tracking recovery are as follows:.

The Glasgow Coma Scale is used at the scene of the accident, in the Emergency Department, and during the life saving hospital stay. It is a useful scale for doctors and nurses who want to track improvements in brain recovery or predict recovery. A sudden decline in being awake can mean that the brain pressure is changing for the worse or that there may be an area of bleeding in the brain that needs attention.

An increase in the number means that the brain is getting better. The Glasgow Coma Scale is rarely used after the initial hospital stay.

This scale is most often used in the first year after brain injury. Skip to content. Understanding Stages of Coma. To be awake, the RAS and at least one cerebral hemisphere we have two must be functioning. If a person loses consciousness, either the RAS has stopped working, or both cerebral hemispheres have shut down. The reticular activating system stops working in two situations: When there is brain stem bleeding or loss of oxygen.

This shuts off the reticular activating system. When there is swellingin the brain. The skull is a rigid box that protects the brain. Unfortunately, if the brain is injured and begins to swell, there is no room. Increased pressure within the brain increased intracranial pressure causes compression of the brain tissue against the skull bones. This swelling can affect other parts of the brain.

The Battle to Survive — Acute Care Treatment of Coma from Swelling When the members of the medical trauma team are concerned about swelling of the brain, an intracranial pressure monitor may be placed inside the skull to read the pressure inside. Persons may show different emotional response when loved ones are present. The storage of new memories and short term memory knowing what day it is, knowing who visited yesterday is thought to be impaired thought it is difficult to measure.

Prognosis for Recovery after months in a MCS stage: The recovery for this population is slow and long. No evidence of purposeful motor activity. No response to command. No evidence of language comprehension or expression.

Inability to discretely localize noxious stimuli. Vegetative State All of the following criteria must be evident on bedside examination: No evidence of awareness of self or environment.

No evidence of sustained, reproducible, purposeful, or voluntary behavioral responses to visual, auditory, tactile, or noxious stimuli. Intermittent wakefulness manifested by the presence of sleep-wake cycles. Sufficiently preserved hypothalamic and brain-stem autonomic functions to permit survival with medical and nursing care. Show More. Show Less. Search Disorders. View Full Definition. View Full Treatment Information. View Full Prognosis. Throughout the U. Related Information.

Brain Injury Association of America, Inc. Brain Trauma Foundation. See all related organizations. Clinical Trials. Patient Organizations. Fairfax, VA Tel: ; Palo Alto, CA