Coming out of a coma: being held hostage by your own body. Coma (comatose state) How many days can a person be in a coma?

From pneumonia. People who came out of a coma told “Snob” how they feel when they are between life and death, and their relatives talked about how to live if brain damage is irreversible

“I didn’t understand where I was and why I wasn’t waking up”

Oksana, 29 years old, Khabarovsk:

I was 16. We were celebrating the New Year, and I suddenly thought: “Soon I will disappear!” I told my friend about this and they laughed. For the next month I lived with a feeling of emptiness, like a person without a future, and on February 6 I was hit by a truck.

Beyond that is an endless black veil. I didn’t understand where I was and why I wasn’t waking up, and if I died, why was I still thinking? She lay in a coma for two and a half weeks. Then she gradually began to come to her senses. After coming out of a coma, you remain in a semi-conscious state for some time. Sometimes I had visions: a ward, I was trying to eat pumpkin porridge, next to me was a man in a green robe and glasses, a father and mother.

At the beginning of March, I opened my eyes and realized that I was in the hospital. On the nightstand next to the bed there was a rose and a card from relatives for March 8th - it’s so strange, it was just February. Mom told me that a month ago I was hit by a car, but I didn’t believe her and didn’t believe that this was reality for about another year.

I forgot half my life, I learned to speak and walk again, I couldn’t hold a pen in my hands. The memory returned within a year, but full recovery took ten years. My friends turned away from me: when they were 15-18 years old, they didn’t want to sit by my bed. It was very offensive; there was some kind of aggression towards the world. I didn’t understand how to live on. At the same time, I managed to graduate from school on time without missing a year - thanks to the teachers! Admitted to the University.

Three years after the accident, I began to experience severe dizziness in the morning and nausea. I got scared and went to neurosurgery for examination. They didn't find anything on me. But in the department I saw people who were much worse off than me. And I realized that I have no right to complain about life, because I walk with my feet, I think with my head. Now I'm fine. I am working, and the only reminders of the accident are slight weakness in my right arm and a speech impediment due to the tracheotomy.

“After seven months I opened my eyes. My first thought: “Did I drink yesterday?”

Vitaly, 27 years old, Tashkent:

Three years ago I met a girl. We talked on the phone all day, and in the evening we decided to meet as a group. I drank a bottle or two of beer - so my lips were wet and I was completely sober. Then I got ready to go home. It's not far, I thought, maybe I should leave the car and catch a taxi? Before this, I dreamed for three nights in a row that I died in an accident. I woke up in a cold sweat and was glad to be alive. That evening I finally got behind the wheel, and with me were two more girls.

The accident was terrible: a head-on blow. The girl who was sitting in front flew through the glass onto the road. She survived, but remained disabled: her legs were broken. She is the only one who did not lose consciousness, saw everything and remembers. And I fell into a coma for seven and a half months. The doctors did not believe that I would survive.

While I was in a coma, I dreamed a lot of things. We had to sleep on the ground with some people until the morning, and then go somewhere.

After four months in the hospital, my parents took me home. They didn’t eat it themselves - it was all for me. My diabetes complicated the situation: in the hospital I lost up to 40 kilograms, skin and bones. At home they began to fatten me up. Thanks to my beloved brother: he quit school, partying, read about coma, gave instructions to his parents, everything was under his strict control. When I opened my eyes seven and a half months later, I didn’t understand anything: I was lying naked, moving with difficulty. I thought: “I drank yesterday, or what?”

I didn’t recognize my mother for two weeks. I regretted that I survived and wanted to go back: it was good in a coma

At first I regretted that I survived and wanted to go back. It was good in a coma, but here there were only problems. They told me that I had been killed in an accident, they reproached me: “Why did you drink? This is what your drinking has led to!” It bothered me, I even thought about suicide. There were problems with memory. I didn’t recognize my mother for two weeks. Memory slowly returned only after two years. I started my life from scratch, developed every muscle. There were problems with hearing: there was war in my ears—shootouts, explosions. You can go crazy. I saw it poorly: the image was multiplying. For example, I knew that we had one chandelier in the hall, but I saw a billion of them. A year later it became a little better: I look at a person a meter away from me, I close one eye and see one, and if both eyes are open, the image doubles. If a person moves further, then again there is a billion. I couldn’t hold my head up for more than five minutes—my neck was getting tired. I learned to walk again. I never gave myself any favors.

All this changed my life: now I’m not interested in partying, I want a family and children. I have become wiser and more well-read. For a year and a half I slept two to four hours a day, read everything: there was no hearing, no talking, no watching TV - only the phone saved me. I learned what a coma is and what the consequences are. I never lost heart. I knew that I would get up and prove to everyone and myself that I could handle it. I've always been very active. Before the accident, everyone needed me, and then bam! - and became unnecessary. Someone “buried” me, someone thought that I would remain crippled for the rest of my life, but this only gave me strength: I wanted to get up and prove that I was alive. Three years have passed since the accident. I can’t walk well, I can’t see well, I can’t hear well, I don’t understand all the words. But I constantly work on myself, I still do exercises. Where to go?

“After the coma, I decided to start my life over and divorced my wife.”

Sergey, 33 years old, Magnitogorsk:

At the age of 23, after an unsuccessful operation on the pancreas, I developed blood poisoning. The doctors put me into an induced coma and kept me on life support. I stayed like that for a month. I dreamed about all sorts of things, and the last time before waking up I was rolling some grandmother in a wheelchair along a dark and damp corridor. People were walking nearby. Suddenly my grandmother turned around and said that it was too early for me to be with them, she waved her hand - and I woke up. Then I spent another month in intensive care. After I was transferred to the general ward, I learned to walk for three days.

I was discharged from the hospital with pancreatic necrosis. They gave me the third disability group. I spent six months on sick leave, then went back to work: by profession I am an electrician of metallurgical equipment. Before the hospital, I worked in a hot shop, but then I transferred to another one. The disability was soon lifted.

After the coma, I rethought my life and realized that I was living with the wrong person. My wife visited me in the hospital, but I suddenly developed a kind of disgust for her. I can't explain why. We have one life, so I left the hospital and divorced my wife of my own free will. Now he is married to someone else and is happy with her.

“Half of my face is made of iron”

Pavel, 33 years old, St. Petersburg:

Since my youth, I have been involved in alpine skiing, a little powerlifting, and trained children. Then I gave up sports for several years, worked in sales, did whatever the hell. He lived one day at a time, trying to find himself.

In 2011, I fell from an observation deck in Tallinn from a height of the fourth floor. After that, he lay in a coma for eight days on artificial life support.

While I was in a coma, I dreamed of some guys who said that on earth I was doing the wrong thing. They said: look for a new body and start all over again. But I said I want to go back to the old ways. In your life, to your family and friends. “Well, try it,” they said. And I returned.

The first time after waking up, I did not understand what was wrong with me, and the world around me seemed unreal. Then I began to become aware of myself and my body. Absolutely indescribable sensations when you realize that you are alive! The doctors asked what I would do now, and I answered: “Train children.”

The main blow during the fall fell on the left side of the head, I went through several operations to restore the skull and facial bones: half of the face is made of iron: metal plates are sewn into the skull. My face was literally assembled from a photograph. Now I almost look like my old self.

The left side of the body was paralyzed. The rehabilitation was not easy and very painful, but if I sat and was sad, nothing good would have come of it. My family and friends supported me a lot. And my health is good. I did exercise therapy, performed exercises to restore memory and vision, completely isolated myself from everything harmful and followed a daily routine. And a year later he returned to work, organized his own sports club in St. Petersburg: in the summer I teach children and adults to roller skate, in the winter - skiing.

“I broke down and shook my son: “Say something!” And he looked and was silent"

Alena, 37 years old, Naberezhnye Chelny:

In September 2011, my son and I had an accident. I was driving, lost control, drove into oncoming traffic. The son hit his head on the counter between the seats and suffered an open head injury. My arms and legs were broken. I sat stunned, in the first minutes I was sure that everything was fine with my son. We were taken to Aznakaevo, a small town where there is no neurosurgeon. As luck would have it, it was a day off. The doctors said that my child had injuries incompatible with life. He lay there for a day with a broken head. I prayed like crazy. Then doctors from the republican hospital arrived and performed a craniotomy. Four days later he was taken to Kazan.

My son lay in a coma for about a month. Then he began to slowly wake up and entered the phase of a waking coma: that is, he slept and woke up, but looked at one point and did not react in any way to the outside world - and so on for three months.

We were discharged home. The doctors did not give any prognosis; they said that the child could remain in this condition for life. My husband and I read books about brain damage, gave our son massages every day, did exercise therapy with him, and in general, didn’t leave him alone. At first he lay in diapers, couldn’t hold his head up, and didn’t speak for another year and a half. Sometimes I would break down and shake him in hysterics: “Say something!” And he looks at me and is silent.

I lived in a kind of half-asleep, I didn’t want to wake up so as not to see all this. I had a healthy, handsome son, an excellent student, and played sports. And after the accident it was scary to look at him. Once I almost came close to committing suicide. Then I went to a psychiatrist for treatment, and faith in the best returned. We raised money for rehabilitation abroad, a lot of friends helped, and my son began to recover. But several years ago he developed severe epilepsy: seizures several times a day. We've tried a lot of things. In the end, the doctor picked up pills that helped. Seizures now occur once a week, but epilepsy has delayed the progress of rehabilitation.

Now my son is 15 years old. After paralysis of the right side of his body, he walks crookedly. The hand and fingers of the right hand do not work. He speaks and understands at the everyday level: “yes”, “no”, “I want to go to the toilet”, “I want a chocolate bar”. The speech is very scanty, but doctors call it a miracle. Now he is home-schooled, a teacher from a special school teaches him. Previously, my son was an excellent student, but now he solves examples at level 1+2. He can copy letters and words from a book, but if you say “write a word,” he won’t be able to. My son will never be the same, but I am still grateful to God and the doctors that he is alive.

Contrary to what we most often see in feature films, coma does not always mean a complete “shutdown” of all systems of the human body. In total, there are four degrees of severity of coma - if the first one is more like a half-asleep state, and the patient retains basic reflexes, then at the fourth stage the person ceases to be aware of the outside world and react to it, often even breathing stops.

Cases where people spend several days or weeks in a coma are not uncommon. Sometimes doctors put a person into an artificial coma in order to protect the body from negative effects on the brain - for example, after hemorrhage or swelling. However, a prolonged coma poses a much greater threat. It is believed that the longer a person is in this condition, the less chance of recovery. Coma that lasts more than a year is sometimes also called a “dead zone,” and loved ones are prepared for the fact that a person will spend the rest of his life in this state.

What people who came out of a long coma say, and how their lives changed after that - in the material of Izvestia.

Another world

Testimonies from those who have been in a coma vary depending on how long the person spent in this state. For example, people whose coma has lasted several days most often say that upon waking up they feel the same as a person who has slept for about 20 hours. They may feel very weak, have difficulty moving, and need to sleep for long periods of time. Some are not even able to remember everything they saw during this time.

People who have spent several weeks, months or years in a coma are usually unable to move independently after waking up and require a long recovery period. They may have difficulty looking at light, and they will likely need to relearn how to speak and write, as well as struggle with memory loss. Such people may not only ask the same question several times in a row, but also not recognize people’s faces or remember entire episodes from their own lives.

Body like a prison

Photo: Getty Images/PhotoAlto/Ale Ventura

Martin Pistorius fell into a coma when he was 12 and remained there for the next 13 years. The cause was a neurological disease, the exact nature of which doctors were unable to determine; meningitis was presumably to blame. The boy, who initially complained of a sore throat, very quickly lost the ability to speak, move and focus his eyes. Doctors discharged him from the hospital, warning his parents that he would remain in this condition for the rest of his life. At the same time, Martin’s eyes were open, but his consciousness and reflexes did not work. The father and mother cared for the child with all their might - every day they took him to classes in a special group, bathed him, and turned him over at night every few hours to avoid the formation of bedsores.

The worst thing for the boy began after about two years later, his consciousness returned, but his speech and movement skills did not return. He could not tell those around him that he heard, saw and understood everything that was happening around him. Those close to him, accustomed to his condition, had almost stopped noticing him by this point, and therefore could not guess what changes were taking place in Martin’s mind.

Martin himself later said that he felt locked in his own body: in the group where his father took him, they were shown the same repetitive program for children day after day and he had no way to make it clear that it was fatal to him I'm tired of it. One day he heard his mother wish him death in despair. However, Martin did not break down - first he learned to control his own thoughts so as not to fall into depression, and then he re-mastered interaction with the outside world. For example, I learned to tell time by shadows. Gradually, his physical skills began to return - eventually, the aromatherapist working with him noticed this, after which Martin was urgently sent to the medical center to undergo all the necessary tests and begin the recovery period.

Martin is now 39 years old. Consciousness has fully returned to him, as has partial control over his own body, although he still moves in a wheelchair. However, after waking up from his coma, Martin met his wife Joanna and also wrote a book, Shadow Boy, in which he talked about the time he was trapped in his own body.

Dreams in a coma

Musician Fred Hersh has been nominated several times for a Grammy Award, and in 2011 he was recognized as Jazz Pianist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. Today he continues to give concerts around the world.

In 2008, Hersh was diagnosed with AIDS, against which the musician almost immediately began to develop dementia, after which he fell into a coma. Hersh spent several months in this state, and after emerging from it, he realized that he had lost almost all his motor skills. For about 10 months he was forced to remain bedridden. During the rehabilitation process, his main source of motivation was the synthesizer that Hersh played while in his hospital bed.

Photo: Getty Images/Josh Sisk/For The Washington Post

Almost a year later, the musician managed to accomplish the almost impossible - he achieved a complete recovery. And in 2011, based on the experience he had while in a coma, he wrote the concert My coma dreams (“My dreams in a coma.” - Izvestia). The work includes parts for 11 musical instruments and a vocalist, and also includes the use of multimedia images. In 2014, the concert was released on DVD.

Longest coma

The longest living person in a coma was American Terry Wallace. In June 1984, he and a friend were involved in a car accident - in a mountainous area, the car fell off a cliff, his friend died, and Terry himself fell into a coma. According to doctors, there was practically no hope that he would be able to get out of this condition. However, 19 years later, in June 2003, Terry suddenly came to his senses.

Soon he began to recognize relatives, but his memory was limited by the events of 19 years ago. For example, he felt like a 20-year-old man, but refused to recognize his own daughter because the last time he saw her, she was an infant. And, from Terry's point of view, she should have remained so. In addition, Terry suffered from short-term amnesia - he could retain any event in his memory for no longer than a few minutes, after which he immediately forgot about it, or could not recognize the person he had just met. This phenomenon is reported by many who have experienced coma for at least a few days, but most often memory problems are short-term in nature.

Among other things, Wallace physically could not imagine that he had spent the last 19 years unconscious and the world had changed significantly, and due to changes in the functioning of the brain, he had almost forgotten how to hide his thoughts. Now he literally says what he thinks.

At first, Terry could only utter fragmentary words, but gradually he regained the ability to speak coherently. He remained paralyzed for life, but fully recovered consciousness and the ability to communicate coherently.

After a special study, doctors came to the conclusion that his brain was able to independently connect the remaining “working” neurons and thus reboot.

Coma of neurological (primary) origin

This type of coma occurs:

For traumatic brain injuries (traumatic).
In case of disturbances in the functioning of the cardiovascular system, as well as disorders of cerebral circulation (cerebrovascular coma). This happens with a stroke. A person may be in a coma for other reasons.
As a result of epileptic seizures.
Coma that occurs as a result of an inflammatory disease of the brain or its membrane (meningoencephalitic).
As a consequence of a tumor process in the brain (hypertension).

Varieties of this condition are:

endocrine coma (for example, with diabetes mellitus), thyrotoxic, hypothyroid (with pathologies of the thyroid gland), hypocorticoid (acute adrenal insufficiency), hypolituitary (acute deficiency of hormones produced by the pituitary gland);
toxic coma (during liver or kidney failure, poisoning, overdose of alcohol or drugs, as well as cholera;
hypotoxic form (in severe forms of heart failure, as well as anemia, pulmonary obstruction);
coma caused by exposure to any physical factors (hypothermia, overheating, electric shock, etc.);
coma caused by dehydration or electrolyte deficiency.

How dangerous is a coma? Is it possible to recover from a coma?

According to statistics, the most common cause of coma is stroke. In second place on this list is drug overdose, and in third place are the consequences of diabetes mellitus.

Classification of comas according to the depth of depression of consciousness: 1st degree (so-called “subcortical” coma, mild degree), 2nd degree (anterior brainstem, moderate severity), 2nd degree (posterior brainstem, deep), 4th degree (extraordinary, extremely severe condition).

The transition from one degree of coma to another is sometimes very abrupt, so it is sometimes quite difficult to determine the stage of coma in a patient.

This condition is called subcortical coma and is characterized by inhibition of the activity of the cerebral cortex, as well as the subcortical formations of this organ. This type of coma differs from others in the following characteristics:

feeling as if the patient is in a dream;
disorientation of a person in time and location;
lack of awareness of reality, slurred speech;
disappearance of reactions to painful stimuli;
increased muscle tone;
strengthening deep reflexes;
inhibition of surface reflexes;
preservation of the reaction of the pupils to light stimuli, strabismus, spontaneity of eye movements;
preserved breathing;
tachycardia (increased heart rate).

At this stage of cerebral coma, the activity of the subcortical zones begins to slow down, which characterizes this stage with the following conditions:

the occurrence of tonic convulsions or trembling of some parts of the patient’s body;
complete lack of speech, impossibility of verbal contact with the patient;
strong weakening of pain reactions;
sharp depression of both deep and superficial reflexes;
weak reaction of the pupils to light stimuli, their narrowing;
increased body temperature and excessive sweating;
sudden changes in blood pressure;
tachycardia;
violation of respiratory activity (breathing stops, different depths of inspiration).

Pathological processes occur in the medulla oblongata. In this case, the risk to the patient’s life is quite high, and the prognosis for recovery after a coma is significantly reduced. How do people in a coma feel? Stage 3 is characterized by the following conditions:

What other type of coma can happen? Coming out of a coma does not always happen.

In this state, a person has absolutely no signs of brain activity. And it shows up like this:

lack of reflexes;
full dilation of the pupils;
muscle atony;
a sharp decrease in body temperature and blood pressure (to zero);
absolute absence of spontaneous breathing.

Coma 4 degrees is an almost 100% probability of death.

Coma usually lasts from one to several weeks. However, there are a huge number of cases where this condition lasted much longer - up to several months and even years.

The patient's return to consciousness occurs slowly. At first, he may come to his senses for only a few minutes or hours, and over time this time increases. A person’s return to a normal state largely depends on the depth of the coma he experienced, as well as on a number of reasons why this condition arose.

The consequences of coma are sometimes very severe. During this condition, the brain is damaged, so the person may not recover some body functions. Very often, after a coma, people cannot walk, make movements with their hands, and there is a slowdown in speech activity or its complete absence.

After a first-degree coma, a person, as a rule, quickly comes to his senses, and his body in most cases does not lose its abilities. After a third-degree coma, the brain is almost completely destroyed. Accordingly, after this, a person no longer has the opportunity to live a full life.

The consequences of a coma can also be memory impairment, changes in human behavior (aggressiveness or lethargy), decreased attention and reactions. After suffering a comatose state, people recover their abilities for a very long time, even in the everyday sphere - feeding themselves, bathing, changing clothes, etc.

The experiences and sensations of a person who is in a comatose state have been studied for many years in various countries around the world. However, there are still no reliable facts about this.

Nevertheless, scientists still made some conclusions, for example, it has been scientifically proven that even those people who are in a state of deep coma experience certain states, and the brain has some activity. Thus, it turned out that a patient in a coma has the internal ability to respond to external stimuli. This fact is due to the fact that special research equipment recorded special brain waves emitted at moments when relatives and friends speak to a person. What else do people feel in a coma?

The patient internally reacts to tactile sensations, which can also be confirmed by rapid heartbeat, changes in breathing intensity, or changes in blood pressure. This can confirm that a person experiencing a comatose state reacts in a certain way to events occurring in the outside world and responds to them. What people feel in a coma can be told by those who have successfully come out of it.

Many people who have experienced this condition share their feelings and experiences. Some of them claim that they were in a kind of altered state of consciousness, when they seemed to travel between worlds, could see their deceased relatives and even talk to them. Other patients claim that they were conscious, heard the speech of doctors, relatives who were next to them, but could neither move nor in any way confirm their ability to understand everything. The third group of people in a coma may have had a variety of dreams, or they were in a state of unconsciousness, when after waking up from the coma they could not remember absolutely anything.

From ancient Greek “coma” is translated as “deep sleep”. While a person is in a coma, the nervous system is depressed. This is very dangerous, because this process progresses and failure of vital organs is possible, for example, respiratory activity may stop. While in a coma, a person stops responding to external stimuli and the world around him; he may have no reflexes.

Prekoma. While in this state, the person remains conscious, but there is slight confusion in actions and lack of coordination. The body functions according to the concomitant disease.
Coma 1st degree. The body's reaction is very inhibited even to strong stimuli. It is difficult to find contact with the patient, but he can make simple movements, for example, turning over in bed. Reflexes are preserved, but are very weakly expressed.
Coma 2nd degree. The patient is in a deep stage of sleep. Movements are possible, but they are performed spontaneously and in a chaotic manner. The patient does not feel touch, the pupils do not react to light in any way, and respiratory function is impaired.
Classifying coma according to the degree of its depth, we can distinguish the following types of this condition:

In this article we will take a closer look at the condition of a person in a penultimate degree coma.

This is a very dangerous condition for human life, in which the body cannot practically function independently. Therefore, it is impossible to predict how long the unconscious state will last. It all depends on the body itself, on the degree of brain damage, and on the age of the person. Coming out of a coma is quite difficult; as a rule, only about 4% of people are able to overcome this barrier. Moreover, even if the person has regained consciousness, most likely he will remain disabled.

If you are in a third-degree coma and return to consciousness, the recovery process will be very long, especially after such serious complications. As a rule, people learn to speak, sit, read, and walk again. The rehabilitation period can take quite a long time: from several months to several years.

According to studies, if in the first 24 hours after the onset of a coma a person does not feel external irritants and pain, and the pupils do not react to light in any way, then such a patient will die. However, if at least one reaction is present, then the prognosis is more favorable for recovery. It is worth noting that the health of all organs and the age of the patient who has developed a 3rd degree coma play a huge role.

About thirty thousand people a year die as a result of road accidents and three hundred thousand become their victims. Many of them become disabled as a result. One of the most common consequences of a road accident is traumatic brain injury, which often causes a person to fall into a coma.

If, after an accident, a person’s life requires hardware support, and the patient himself has no reflexes and does not respond to pain and other stimuli, a 3rd degree coma is diagnosed. The chances of survival after an accident that leads to this condition are negligible. The prognosis for such patients is disappointing, but there is still a chance of returning to life. It all depends on the degree of brain injury as a result of the accident.

If a stage 3 coma is diagnosed, the chances of survival depend on the following factors:
- Degree of brain injury.
- Long-term consequences of TBI.
- Fracture of the base of the skull.
- Fracture of the cranial vault.
- Fracture of the temporal bones.
- Concussion.
- Trauma to blood vessels.
- Brain swelling.
A stroke is a disruption of the blood supply to the brain. It happens for two reasons. The first is blockage of blood vessels in the brain, the second is bleeding in the brain.

One of the consequences of cerebrovascular accident is coma (apoplectiform coma). In case of hemorrhage, a 3rd degree coma may occur. The chances of surviving a stroke are directly related to age and the extent of the damage. Signs of this condition:
- Lack of consciousness.
- Change in complexion (becomes purple).
- Loud breathing.
- Vomit.
- Trouble swallowing.
- Slowing heart rate.
- Increased blood pressure.
The duration of the coma depends on a number of factors:
- Coma stage. In the first or second stage, the chances of recovery are very high. With the third or fourth, the outcome is usually unfavorable.
- Condition of the body.
- Patient's age.
- Equipping with necessary equipment.
- Patient care.
This condition has its own distinctive features:
- Lack of response to pain.
- The pupils do not respond to light stimuli.
- Lack of swallowing reflex.
- Lack of muscle tone.
- Reduced body temperature.
- Inability to breathe independently.
- Bowel movements occur uncontrollably.
- Presence of seizures.
As a rule, the prognosis for recovery from a third-degree coma is unfavorable due to the absence of vital signs.

A child may fall into a coma in the event of a deep disorder of the central nervous system, which is accompanied by loss of consciousness. The reasons for the development of coma in a child are the following pathological conditions: renal and liver failure, meningoencephalitis, brain tumor and trauma, diabetes mellitus, water and electrolyte imbalance, cerebral hemorrhage, hypoxia during childbirth and hypovolemia.

Newborns fall into a comatose state much more easily. It is very scary when a third degree coma is diagnosed. A child has a higher chance of survival than older people. This is explained by the characteristics of the child’s body.

In the case when a 3rd degree coma occurs, the newborn has a chance of survival, but, unfortunately, it is very small. If the baby manages to get out of a serious condition, severe complications or disability are possible. At the same time, we must not forget about the percentage of children, albeit small, who managed to cope with this without any consequences.

The longer the unconscious state lasts, the more difficult it will be to get out of it and recover. A 3rd degree coma can occur differently for everyone. The consequences, as a rule, depend on the degree of brain damage, the length of time spent in an unconscious state, the reasons that led to the coma, the health of the organs and age. The younger the body, the higher the chances of a favorable outcome. However, doctors rarely make a prognosis for recovery, since such patients are very sick.

Despite the fact that newborns recover from a coma more easily, the consequences can be very sad. Doctors immediately warn relatives how dangerous a 3rd degree coma is. Of course, there are chances of survival, but at the same time a person may remain a “plant” and never learn to swallow, blink, sit and walk.

For an adult, a prolonged stay in a coma is fraught with the development of amnesia, the inability to move and speak, eat and defecate independently. Rehabilitation after a deep coma can take from a week to several years. In this case, recovery may never occur, and the person will remain in a vegetative state for the rest of his life, when he can only sleep and breathe on his own, without reacting in any way to what is happening.

Statistics show that the chance of a full recovery is extremely small, but such events do happen. Most often, death is possible, or in case of recovery from a coma - a severe form of disability.

The main complication after a coma is a violation of the regulatory functions of the central nervous system. Subsequently, vomiting often occurs, which can enter the respiratory tract, and stagnation of urine, which can lead to bladder rupture. Complications also affect the brain. Coma often leads to breathing problems, pulmonary edema and cardiac arrest. Often these complications lead to biological death.

Modern medicine makes it possible to artificially maintain the vital functions of the body for quite a long time, but the question often arises about the feasibility of these measures. This dilemma arises for relatives when they are informed that the brain cells have died, that is, in fact, the person himself. Often a decision is made to remove artificial life support.

In 2009, a 17-year-old Daniela Kovacevic from Serbia, blood poisoning occurred during childbirth. She fell into a comatose state, and doctors call her recovery from the coma after 7 years anything other than a miracle. After active therapy, the girl can move around (with the help of strangers for now) and hold a pen in her hands. And those who are on duty near the bedside of patients in a coma have hope that the same miracle can happen to their loved ones.

More than 3 years ago, she found herself in a comatose state. Maria Konchalovskaya, daughter of director Andron Konchalovsky. In October 2013, in France, the Konchalovsky family was involved in a serious accident. The director and his wife Yulia Vysotskaya escaped with minor bruises thanks to the deployed airbags. And the girl, who was not wearing a seat belt, received a severe head injury. Doctors saved the child's life, but warned that recovery would be long. Alas, their prediction came true. The girl's rehabilitation continues.

Rehabilitation continues for 21 years Colonel General Anatoly Romanov, commander of the united group of federal troops in Chechnya. On October 6, 1995, his car was blown up in a tunnel in Grozny. Romanov was literally assembled piece by piece. Thanks to the efforts of doctors, after 18 days the general opened his eyes and began to respond to light, movement and touch. But the patient still does not realize what is happening around him. What methods did the doctors use to “break through” into his consciousness? For 14 years, the general was treated at the Burdenko hospital. Then he was transferred to a hospital for internal troops near Moscow. But for now, this strong and courageous man, as doctors say, is in a state of minimal consciousness.

Sharon Stone suffered an intracerebral hemorrhage, which left her in a coma for 9 days. Stevie Wonder, American blind soul singer, was in a serious car accident and was in a coma for 4 days; after leaving, he partially lost his sense of smell. In 2013, he received a severe head injury seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher. He remained unconscious for more than six months. Then there was progress in his condition, but rehabilitation continues to this day.

Until now, only one case is known in which a patient, after a long coma, managed to return to a full life. June 12, 1984 Terry Wallace from Arkansas, having drunk a fair amount, went for a ride with a friend. The car fell off a cliff. The friend died, Wallace fell into a coma. A month later he entered a vegetative state, in which he remained for almost 20 years. In 2003, he unexpectedly uttered two words: “Pepsi-Cola” and “mom.” After conducting an MRI study, scientists discovered that the incredible had happened: the brain repaired itself, growing new structures to replace the damaged ones. Over 20 years of immobility, all of Wallace's muscles atrophied and he lost the simplest self-care skills. He also did not remember anything about the accident or the events of the past years. In fact, he had to start life from scratch. However, the example of this man still gives hope to those who continue to fight for the return of their loved ones to normal life.

Mikhail Piradov, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Scientific Center for Neurology:

- From the point of view of pathophysiology, any coma ends no later than 4 weeks after its onset (if the patient does not die). Possible options for exiting a coma: transition to consciousness, a vegetative state (the patient opens his eyes, breathes independently, the sleep-wake cycle is restored, there is no consciousness), a state of minimal consciousness. A vegetative state is considered permanent if it lasts (according to various criteria) from 3-6 months to a year. In my long practice, I have not seen a single patient who emerged from a vegetative state without loss. The prognosis for each individual patient depends on many factors, the main of which are the nature and nature of the injuries received. The most favorable prognosis is usually for patients with metabolic (eg, diabetic) coma. If resuscitation care was provided competently and in a timely manner, such patients recover from coma quickly enough and often without any losses. However, there have always been, are and will be patients with severe brain damage, who are very difficult to help even with the highest level of resuscitation and rehabilitation. The worst prognosis is for comas caused by vascular origin (after a stroke).

Every day new patients are admitted to hospitals in different cities. Sometimes a patient has to make a choice in favor of one treatment or another, or refuse it altogether, but what should someone who is in a coma do?

People in deep sleep cannot make decisions and therefore this heavy responsibility falls on the shoulders of their immediate family. To understand what to do in such a situation, you need to know what a coma is, how you can bring a person out of it and what its consequences are. Let's talk about this.

Coma refers to a severe comatose state in which a man is in deep sleep. Depending on the degree of coma the patient has, various functions of the body may be slowed down, brain activity may be disabled, metabolism and the functioning of the nervous system may be completely stopped or significantly slowed down.

The cause may be: stroke, brain injury, meningitis, epilepsy, encephalitis, hypothermia or overheating of the body.

Coma is conventionally divided into 5 degrees of severity, namely:
- 1st degree - precoma. Those affected by this gradually begin to experience general lethargy, a drop in reaction, a feeling of drowsiness, lack of sleep, and confusion in consciousness. It’s rare, but it still happens that everything happens the other way around, in excessive excitement. Reflexes at this stage are preserved, while the work of all internal organs is already inhibited. Sometimes precoma is called nothing more than a state before a coma, and is not referred to as a coma at all.
- 2nd degree - initial level of severity. Reactions to external stimuli begin to slow down. The person still has the ability to swallow liquid food and water, he can move his limbs, but only slightly.
- 3rd degree - moderate level of severity. The patient is already entering a state of deep sleep, contact with him becomes impossible. Only sometimes movements of the limbs can be observed, but rarely they are conscious. The skin already has low sensitivity, a person walks under himself.
- Grade 4 - high level of severity. There is a lack of feeling of pain, consciousness, tendon reflexes, and no reaction to light. Not only body temperature is reduced, but also breathing pressure.
- 5degree - severe coma. The disturbance of consciousness becomes profound, reflexes are absent. Breathing stops and the patient is transferred to an artificial respiration apparatus.
Only specialists can recognize who it is. For these purposes they conduct the following research:
- The level of alcohol in the blood is determined to exclude alcohol intoxication, which may temporarily turn off consciousness.
- The presence of drugs in the blood is determined to exclude drug-induced fainting.
- An electrocardiogram is performed.
These are only general studies; special ones can be prescribed by doctors if necessary.

Doctors still cannot answer the question of how long people can remain in a coma. The thing is that history knows of cases when, after 12 years, people managed to get out of a coma. This is purely individual and one person can come out of this state in just three days, while others will spend years of their life in it.

It is worth saying that doctors often, after several years, advise relatives to make a decision to disconnect a person from the devices that support his life. The prognosis is becoming unfavorable, and maintaining life is not cheap, so many agree to this step. But do not forget that the person is still alive, he just cannot live without special help. The longest recorded time a person spent in a coma was 37 years.

The reactions have already been mentioned earlier; depending on the severity, a person may or may not feel touch. All people who have experienced coma claim that they heard everything that was happening around them, but could not understand whether it was a dream or reality.

Doctors also claim that when relatives often communicate with patients in a coma, they begin to experience active activity in the part of the brain responsible for facial recognition. Also, active impulses appear in the centers responsible for emotions.

Someone claims to have met with deceased relatives; all this happens in patients in a state of sleep, in which, as we know, anything can happen.

Unfortunately, today there is no answer to the question that interests everyone, “how to bring a loved one out of a coma.” All that doctors advise is to talk to the person, hold his hand, let him listen to music, read books. Sometimes a sound or phrase helps a person, grasping it like a thread, come out of a comatose state.

Coming out of a coma occurs gradually. At first, a person may wake up for a couple of minutes, look around and fall back asleep. An hour or two will pass and he will wake up again, and this happens several times.

After waking up from a coma, a person will need a lot of time to adapt. Everything around him seems strange; if he has spent more than a year in this state, he needs time to realize that so much time has passed. You should not expect that a person will immediately get back on his feet and begin to live the same way as before. Speech will not be restored immediately.

At this moment, a person will need the help of loved ones more than ever, everything around will be foreign to him and it will be like a child starting to learn to walk and talk again.

Due to the fact that a comatose state is characterized by brain damage, you need to understand that it will take time to restore some functions. For rehabilitation, special developmental simulators will be required.

Immediate consequences include memory problems, even amnesia. Lethargy, absent-mindedness, and aggressiveness may appear. Don't be afraid, all this can be restored, you just need time and patience. A person may have lost everyday skills, so he will need to be taught everything again. It is easy to understand what consequences await those who have spent more than five years in a coma; during this time, a lot has changed around them and then the person needs to be introduced to everything around him.

A coma is certainly scary, but if your loved ones find themselves in it, you don’t need to give up, because people come out of it, and then begin to live their old lives again, even if not immediately.

Coma is a phenomenon that is not fully understood by doctors and scientists. A person can remain unconscious for several hours or years, seemingly not reacting in any way to external stimuli. However, recent studies show that patients do not completely lose contact with the world.

By definition, coma is a state characterized by complete loss of consciousness. A person in a coma has no active movements, breathing and cardiac activity are impaired. Often, doctors and relatives of the patient are faced with the question of whether they should expect a miracle, or whether the patient should be taken off life support and allowed to die. However, a person in a coma may be much more alive than they seem.

As a rule, relatives and relatives come to visit a person lying in a coma. They read to him, tell him the latest news and events from their lives. Outwardly, the patient does not react in any way to their presence, but if you connect special equipment, a different picture emerges. For example, German scientists discovered an interesting phenomenon in a young man who fell into a coma after a serious accident and resulting traumatic brain injuries. Every time the girl he loved came to visit the unlucky motorcyclist, the patient’s heart began to beat faster, which was recorded by the equipment. Subsequently, when the young man began to recover, it was the girl’s presence that had a beneficial effect on him and contributed to his recovery.

By paying attention to the brain of those lying in a coma, you can also find that it is not at rest. Based on the ripple changes, patients respond to the presence of loved ones as well as what they say to them, according to research conducted at the University of Tübingen in Germany. Every fourth person has this ability. Hugging or touching also affects heart function and brain activity. The more pronounced such reactions are, the greater the patient’s chances of emerging from a coma.

Not only people lying in a coma, but also patients under anesthesia are capable of reacting to the words of others and external stimuli, as well as experiencing emotions depending on their content. A curious incident occurred in a German clinic during an operation on a particularly overweight patient. While he was unconscious on the operating table, the doctors allowed themselves to make a couple of jokes about his excess weight. Waking up from anesthesia, the patient was outraged and upset by the ridicule he heard. For this reason, relatives and medical personnel are not recommended to make negative predictions while at the bedside of an unconscious or comatose person.

How do people feel in a coma?

anonymous, Male, 1 year

My son has congenital heart disease (type 4, VSD). There was respiratory arrest, cardiac arrest, clinical death and cerebral edema. Now the child has been in a 3rd degree coma for almost 2 months. The child is 1 year and 2 months old. Results during this time: cerebral edema subsided, sodium returned to normal (it was 190), is on a ventilator (there were some attempts to breathe... But... I haven’t started breathing yet). He began to respond to touches: moves his arms, legs, fingers, squeezes hangers (on the legs he is afraid of tickling and pulls them away strongly). Now they are doing physical therapy with him. But he started doing all this long before physical therapy. I wanted to ask: should I leave my son stem cells (I’m just now pregnant with my second), can they help him in any way or be useful? And what can you say about our situation (((?

Good afternoon Your child's condition is quite serious and requires medical supervision. Regarding stem cell treatment, I would like to inform you that this type of intervention is not included in the Standards of Medical Care for Children, but there is a Medical Permit for the use of this technology. Regarding the preservation of umbilical cord blood during childbirth, this is a purely voluntary matter. Please send me the conclusion of your attending physician, I can recommend an approximate complex of exercise therapy for the child. Sincerely, Dr. Tarakanov O.P.

anonymously

Hello, third degree coma. I am sending you our extract. Maybe you can also tell us which clinics we should go to, where they take care of such children?...

Photo attached to the question

anonymously

Hello, Nikolai Vladislavovich. I immediately sent you our extract. What can you say about our child? What are our chances? What should we do? Where is the best place to transport him (where are these children cared for)? At 3 o'clock in the morning from September 8 to September 9, 2014, my son suddenly became ill: he began to choke. I called an ambulance and 10-15 minutes later we were already in the hospital. The child was either breathing or not breathing, all pale blue, his eyes were rolling up... He was taken to the intensive care unit and the door was closed.... We don’t know what happened next to the child saw. An hour and a half later, the doctor came out and said that the child was clinically dead, he was pumped with adrenaline (as they told us). At half past 7 in the morning a city resuscitation vehicle with a resuscitator arrived and, since there are no conditions in our area, they took the child to the Children's Republican Clinical Hospital in Kazan. There he was in a drug-induced coma for 3 days, and when he was taken off these medications, it turned out that he was already in a deep 3rd coma. There was severe cerebral edema (we were admitted with sodium 190 and cranial bones spread apart). For the first 2 weeks we had bedsores, swelling, and ate through the system (proteins, fats and carbohydrates). What our child has achieved so far: - looks good outwardly (he’s just sleeping and it seems like he’s about to wake up). There is no swelling, no bedsores and do not appear. - Feed (through a tube) 150 ml of the mixture 6 times a day, absorbs it. Now we are gradually switching to porridge. - Gained good weight (7.3 kg when admitted, now 8.4 kg) - bleeps and poops. Sometimes they do an enema, mostly he poops himself. -Moves: it all started with small movements of the hands. We even thought that we were just imagining it... but every day the movements became stronger and stronger, I began to move my fingers and raise my arms. Then the same thing happened with the legs. Now he moves his whole body: he lifts his chest, tenses his abdominal muscles, and even began to move his head a little. When I bend his legs into his knees, he even tries to hold them in this position for some time: his legs tremble from tension, then he relaxes and they move apart. You can’t cut his toenails calmly, he’s ticklish and he begins to pull away and take away his foot (this is what happened at our house when he was healthy). Once I accidentally dropped some water on his tummy, and he started to move all over. And all these movements of him are becoming stronger and stronger every day! -The first 2 teeth (the lower ones) came out at the beginning of June 2014 (we were 9 months old), but the upper ones still didn’t come out and didn’t come out. And then literally for a week he started to have a fever and we couldn’t understand why. Our doctor decided to look into his mouth; it turned out that his upper gums were swollen. Now we are waiting for 2 more teeth. He’s not breathing yet, he’s on a ventilator. The eyes do not react to light, the pupils are dilated. They checked the fundus of the eye and said that everything was fine there. All internal organs were in good and working condition. We feel that our son really wants to live and he must live... he will live...