In a coma, or not?

I remember reading an article on Reader's Digest some years back about a woman who fell into a coma. 'Can't remember reason for the coma anymore but that's not what's important.

She came out of the coma and, boy! Did she have a story to tell!

The woman was actually awake except that her whole body was paralyzed or something. Her eyes were closed but she could hear and feel! She could even smell the flowers that were brought into her room! She remembered exactly what her father and mother said to her as she lay there, dead to the world, it seemed. She remembered her father pinching her toes, on advice by the doctors (seems it sometimes triggers the brain to reactivate). She remembers trying to scream at her father to STOP IT, YOU'RE HURTING ME!

Fascinating story. This article would be a great help for patients like this one.

I have been in a short coma for days, not weeks. No joke. I heard everything and could actual see even though my eyes were closed (at least I was told they were). I can remember what my sister was wearing when the doctor told her I would die that evening, etc. I thought I was dreaming when I woke up a few days later but when I repeated word for word what was said in the room each day, what people wore and where they we standing it made everyone freak out. So now I tell everyone, just yesterday in fact to a friend, to talk to loved ones who are dying and apparently unconscious, like the last stages of the terminally ill. At least I heard every word and somehow could see. Hearing I can understand, but seeing still confuses me as my eyes were closed. And no, this was not some out of body experience with bright lights and angels, just simple fact that I could see perfectly and was frustrated I couldn't move or talk.

This is all petty scary stuff, I bet the medical professionals were included in the 'freaked out' set. I also bet they said it was a one off...

The phrase "in coma" is hopelessly imprecise. Gross response - he drank himself into a coma - v flatline EEG v negative PET give varying answers. Ask Lazarus, Ask Wozniak. Ask me after another drink

Actually as we become having a more understandnig about comas, it actual will and aid being used as a treatment.

Case in point, about 4 years ago a teenager in Fon Du Lac, Wisconsin, was bitten by a bat that had rabies. By the time she was going to be treated by conventional means it was too late. They then tried to treat her with an unproving experimental method, not quite sure of the understand I believe by shutting down her brain by inducing a coma to minimize the damage to her.

She waken a few weeks after. She still shows effects. motor control and such, but she survived.

I thought there was only one other survivor of rabies, but all new accounts states that she was the only one.

It is scary, yet it is amazing how the body can cope with trama

There is one thing that is really upsetting though and its this remark in the article, which can be applied to anything. It's this.

"patient advocacy groups, self-serving lawyers and politicians with personal agendas could use the study's stamp of certainty as a given. "

This may be getting off the topic.

I may and do sound bias about attorneys. But it is only from experience, when you hire one, I understood that they are to represent you to the best of their abilities. yet with the exception of very few. They tend to take the easy way out no matter if it's is a conflict of interest to them and their client.

I think thats an integral part of the topic, who is qualified to make the decision about treatment? The only thing we know for sure is that the state of the art continues to improve, but the dissemination of the knowledge always lag behind.

Yes, but how they actually gain knowledge is basically do what they did to that girl in my eariler post.

"experiment"

This they where able to do because the only other choice was to make funeral arrangements.

unfortunatly, having activists, or people that either want to make a buck or advance thier political career can muddle this. Fortunatly in the case with the rabies, other options were not available, or people would have been reviewed or investigated if they were'nt already.