How long can a person survive in a coma. What are some of the most famous cases of coma survivors. Can people really wake up after years in a coma. What causes prolonged comas and how do patients recover.

The Phenomenon of Prolonged Comas: Understanding the Basics

A coma is a state of prolonged unconsciousness that can be caused by various factors, including severe injuries, illnesses, or even medical interventions. While many comas last for a relatively short period, some individuals have survived in this state for years, even decades. These cases of long-term coma survivors have captivated medical professionals and the public alike, raising questions about the nature of consciousness and the human capacity for recovery.

What exactly defines a coma? A coma is characterized by a complete lack of awareness of one’s surroundings and an inability to respond to external stimuli. Unlike sleep, a coma is a state from which a person cannot be awakened through normal means. The duration of a coma can vary significantly, from a few days to several years, and the outcomes are often unpredictable.

Common Causes of Prolonged Comas

• Traumatic brain injury
• Stroke
• Severe infections affecting the brain
• Drug overdose
• Lack of oxygen to the brain
• Metabolic imbalances

Is there a limit to how long a person can survive in a coma? While there is no definitive upper limit, the longer a coma persists, the less likely it becomes for a person to regain full consciousness and function. However, as we will see in the following cases, there have been remarkable exceptions to this general rule.

Ayanda Nqinana: A 7-Year Journey Back to Consciousness

The case of Ayanda Nqinana, a South African man who emerged from a seven-year coma in 2012, stands out as a testament to the unpredictable nature of coma recovery. Nqinana’s story is particularly intriguing due to the unconventional method that led to his awakening.

How did Ayanda Nqinana fall into a coma? Like many long-term coma cases, Nqinana’s condition was the result of a severe car accident in 2005. For seven years, his family held onto hope, caring for him and exploring various treatment options.

The breakthrough in Nqinana’s case came from an unexpected source. His wife, Nomfundo, stumbled upon research suggesting that a sleeping pill called Stilnox, similar to the well-known medication Ambien, might help awaken coma patients. Despite the seeming paradox of using a sleep aid to wake someone, doctors agreed to try this approach.

After just five days of Stilnox treatment, Nqinana showed signs of awakening, marking the end of his seven-year coma. This case has sparked interest in the potential of certain medications to stimulate brain activity in coma patients, leading to further research in this area.

The Stilnox Phenomenon

Why might a sleeping pill help awaken coma patients? While the exact mechanism is not fully understood, researchers believe that drugs like Stilnox may help restore normal brain activity patterns in some patients with disorders of consciousness. This counterintuitive approach highlights the complex nature of brain function and the potential for unconventional treatments in neurological recovery.

Terry Wallis: A Record-Breaking 19-Year Coma

The case of Terry Wallis stands as one of the most remarkable in medical history, holding the record for the longest coma from which a patient has recovered. Wallis’s story began in 1984 when a tragic car accident in Arkansas left him in a coma and quadriplegic.

How long was Terry Wallis in a coma? Wallis remained in a minimally conscious state for an astonishing 19 years. During this time, his family maintained hope and continued to care for him, despite the seemingly insurmountable odds of recovery.

On June 11, 2003, nearly two decades after his accident, Wallis shocked his caregivers and family by suddenly speaking. His first word was “Mom,” followed by “Pepsi,” demonstrating that some level of awareness and memory had been preserved during his long period of unconsciousness.

The Impact of Wallis’s Recovery

What can we learn from Terry Wallis’s case? His unprecedented recovery has provided valuable insights into brain plasticity and the potential for neural regeneration even after extended periods of inactivity. Wallis’s case has encouraged researchers to reconsider long-held beliefs about the limits of coma recovery and has given hope to families of other long-term coma patients.

Jan Grzebski: Awakening to a Changed World After 19 Years

Matching Terry Wallis’s record for the longest coma survival is the case of Jan Grzebski, a Polish railroad worker who spent 19 years in a coma. Grzebski’s story is particularly fascinating due to the significant societal changes that occurred during his period of unconsciousness.

What caused Jan Grzebski’s coma? Initially believed to be the result of a workplace accident in 1988, it was later discovered that Grzebski’s coma was caused by a 5-centimeter brain tumor. Despite the grim prognosis, Grzebski survived both the tumor and the prolonged coma, emerging in 2006 to a world vastly different from the one he remembered.

Upon awakening, Grzebski expressed amazement at the changes he observed. The fall of communism, the proliferation of cell phones, and the abundance of goods in shops were all new experiences for him. His perspective provided a unique snapshot of the rapid technological and societal advancements that had occurred over nearly two decades.

Life After a 19-Year Coma

How did Jan Grzebski adapt to life after his coma? While his recovery was remarkable, Grzebski faced significant challenges in adjusting to the modern world. Sadly, he passed away just two years after awakening, suffering a heart attack that was believed to be related to his long-term coma.

Grzebski’s case raises important questions about the long-term effects of prolonged comas on overall health and life expectancy. It also highlights the profound psychological impact of awakening to a dramatically changed world after such a long period of unconsciousness.

Evel Knievel: A Brief but Famous Coma

Not all famous coma cases involve years of unconsciousness. The story of Evel Knievel, the legendary stuntman, includes a relatively short but widely publicized coma that occurred at the height of his fame.

How did Evel Knievel end up in a coma? On New Year’s Eve 1967, Knievel attempted one of his most ambitious stunts: jumping over the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. While he cleared the fountains, his landing went horribly wrong, resulting in a crash that was broadcast on national television.

The accident left Knievel with severe injuries, including a fractured skull, broken pelvis, and fractured ribs. As a result of these injuries, Knievel spent the next 29 days in a coma.

The Impact of Knievel’s Coma on His Career

Did Evel Knievel’s coma affect his future as a stuntman? Surprisingly, Knievel’s brush with death and subsequent coma did little to deter him from his daredevil lifestyle. After recovering, he continued to perform dangerous stunts, cementing his status as one of the most famous and controversial stuntmen in history.

Knievel’s case demonstrates that even relatively short-term comas can have a significant impact on public consciousness, especially when they involve high-profile individuals. It also raises questions about the long-term neurological effects of repeated head traumas in high-risk professions.

Fictional Comas: Rip Van Winkle and Philip J. Fry

While real-life coma cases continue to captivate us, fictional accounts of prolonged unconsciousness have long been a part of our cultural imagination. Two notable examples are Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle and Matt Groening’s Philip J. Fry from the animated series Futurama.

Rip Van Winkle: The Classic Tale of a 20-Year Sleep

What is the story of Rip Van Winkle? In Irving’s short story, Rip Van Winkle is a colonial-era man who falls into a deep sleep after drinking a mysterious liquor. When he awakens, he discovers that 20 years have passed, and the world around him has changed dramatically. The American Revolution has ended, and his own son has grown to adulthood.

The tale of Rip Van Winkle has become a cultural touchstone, often used as a metaphor for rapid societal change and the disorientation that can come from being “out of time.”

Philip J. Fry: A Millennial Coma

How long was Philip J. Fry’s coma in Futurama? In this animated series, Fry, a pizza delivery boy, is accidentally cryogenically frozen on New Year’s Eve 1999. He awakens 1,000 years later in the year 2999, finding himself in a future world he struggles to understand.

While Fry’s “coma” is induced by fictional cryonic technology rather than a medical condition, his story explores themes similar to those found in real-life long-term coma cases. The concept of awakening to a changed world and the challenges of adapting to new societal norms are central to both Fry’s story and the experiences of real coma survivors.

The Future of Coma Research and Treatment

As medical science advances, our understanding of comas and our ability to treat patients in prolonged states of unconsciousness continue to evolve. The cases we’ve explored, both real and fictional, raise important questions about the nature of consciousness, the resilience of the human brain, and the potential for recovery even after extended periods of inactivity.

Emerging Treatments and Technologies

• Deep brain stimulation
• Stem cell therapies
• Advanced neuroimaging techniques
• Pharmacological interventions (like the Stilnox treatment used for Ayanda Nqinana)
• Brain-computer interfaces

What does the future hold for coma treatment and recovery? As researchers continue to unravel the mysteries of the brain, new possibilities for treating and potentially awakening coma patients are emerging. These advancements offer hope not only for those currently in comas but also for our broader understanding of consciousness and brain function.

Ethical Considerations

As our ability to sustain and potentially revive coma patients improves, we must also grapple with complex ethical questions. How long should life-sustaining treatments be continued? What quality of life can be expected for those who do awaken after prolonged comas? These are challenging issues that medical professionals, ethicists, and families will continue to face in the years to come.

The stories of long-term coma survivors remind us of the remarkable resilience of the human body and spirit. They challenge our understanding of consciousness and recovery, offering hope in even the most dire circumstances. As we look to the future, the field of coma research and treatment promises to yield new insights and possibilities, potentially changing the way we think about consciousness, recovery, and the very nature of human awareness.

Waking Up: Famous Coma Survivors – Healthy Living Center

A South African man recently emerged from a seven-year coma after being given a sleeping pill similar to Ambien. Not everyone who is in a coma will come out of it, but stories such as his and others provide hope for families caring for a comatose relative.

By Jeffrey Kopman

Reviewed: September 10, 2012

Fact-Checked

Coma is a period of prolonged unconsciousness, a coma can be caused by injury or physical illness — and in rare cases induced by doctors as a treatment option. Recovery is unpredictable and sometimes inexplicable. Seven years after a horrific car accident, South African Ayanda Nqinana finally awoke in early September, 2012. Ironically, the “miracle cure” for Nqinana was a sleeping pill similar to Ambien. Nqinana’s story is proof that sometimes hope and patience prevail, as miraculous awakenings have been reported for patients in comas as long as 19 years.

Ayanda Nqinana: 7-Year Coma

Coma survivor Ayanda Nqinana’s story is truly unique. His coma lasted seven years, from 2005 until 2012. As is the case with many other high-profile comas, Nqinana’s was caused by a car accident. Unlike other comas revivals, his was sparked by a regimen of Stilnox, a sleeping pill similar to Ambien. Based on amateur research conducted by Nqinana’s wife, Nomfundo, doctors agreed to treat Nqinana with Stilnox. After five days of treatment, Nqinana’s seven-year coma was over. Nqinana is one example of a multi-year coma survivor, but he is not the only one to experience such an improbable recovery.

Terry Wallis: 19-Year Coma

Another car accident victim, Terry Wallis, suffered a brain injury that caused what turned out to be a record coma. In 1984, Wallis’s pickup truck was thrown off a small bridge, in Stone County, Ark., killing another passenger. The accident left Wallis a quadriplegic, but amazingly, he was still alive upon arrival at a local hospital. After a few months, his coma had stabilized into a “minimally conscious state,” but there was little reason to believe Wallis would survive and regain consciousness. Those odds looked increasingly grimmer with each passing year. Wallis’s wife, Sandi, and new born daughter, Amber, were left to question if they would ever see Wallis “alive” again. Their questions were answered on June 11, 2003, as, incredibly, Wallis awoke from his 19-year coma — making him the survivor of the longest coma on record, matched, in years, by only one other person.

Photo Credit: Brian Chilson/AP Photo

Jan Grzebski: 19-Year Coma

The second 19-year coma survivor was a Polish man named Jan Grzebski. A railroad worker, Grzebski, 46, suffered his coma in 1988 in what was initially believed to be a workplace accident but was later attributed to a 5-centimeter brain tumor. Grzebski was able to survive the tumor, and eventually emerged from his coma in 2006. In an interview after he woke up, Grzebski admitted to being overwhelmed by the abundance of foods in his local shops, cell phones, and the fall of communism. Unfortunately, Grzebski passed away two years after waking up from his coma. The cause of death was a heart attack, believed to be related to the coma.

Photo Credit: AP Photo

Evel Knievel: 29 Days

Perhaps the most famous stuntman of all time, Knievel was known for punishing his body. One of his most memorable performances took place on New Year’s Eve 1967. Knievel attempted to jump over the famous fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. He cleared the fountains but the landing failed, and he had a horrific crash in front of a national television audience. The crash resulted in a broken pelvis, fractured ribs, and a fractured skull. Knievel spent the next 29 days in a coma.

Photo Credit: Chris O’Meara/AP Photo

Rip Van Winkle (20-Year Coma) and Philip J. Fry (1,000-Year Coma)

These two characters might be works of fiction, but with our ever-expanding knowledge of comas, they might become the art that lives are imitating. Washington Irving’s short story “Rip Van Winkle” tells the story of a colonial husband trying to skip out on his household chores. After enjoying some liquor, Rip falls into a deep sleep.  When he regains consciousness, he realizes that his deep sleep was deeper than he could have possibly imagined: 20 years have passed, the American Revolution has ended, and another man with Rip’s exact name is revealed to be his son.

The Rip Van Winkle tale inspired another coma-like story from Simpsons creator Matt Groening. Philip J. Fry, the main character of Groening’s cartoon Futurama, is a pizza delivery boy who was cryonically frozen in the year 1999. The series begins with Fry being revived from his freeze-induced coma in the year 2999. Similar to Rip Van Winkle, Fry has a difficult time adjusting to his new era. The ultimate outcome of a forced coma through cryonics remains unknown, but that hasn’t stopped approximately 250 people from trying to be the real-life Philip J. Fry: They’ve had themselves cryonically frozen and are patiently awaiting their awakenings.

Doctor describes ‘ecstatic’ moment coma patient woke up after 27 years

World

Doctors had little hope that Munira Abdulla would ever wake up after suffering a brain injury in a 1991 car crash.

April 25, 2019, 1:51 PM UTC

By Carlo Angerer and Patrick Smith

MAINZ, Germany — A doctor who treated a woman who woke up 27 years after a car crash left her in a coma has spoken of the “ecstatic” moment she began to talk again and said how rare her case is.

Munira Abdulla was injured while driving her son, Omar Webair, home from school in their native United Arab Emirates in 1991. She was 32 and he was 4 the time.

While Webair escaped with some bruising, his mother sustained a serious brain injury. Despite treatment at hospitals in the U.A.E, the U.K. and Germany, it was believed she would never wake up.

Munira AbdullaOmar Webair

Then suddenly, last June, she did. Her family has gone public with her story in the last few days to give hope to people with loved ones in long-term comas.

In a phone interview, Dr. Friedemann Müller, the head physician at the Schoen Clinic in Bad Aibling, Germany, where she was being treated, told NBC News that Abdulla gained consciousness after months of therapy. Müller said that when she arrived, only her eyes showed some movement and were able to fixate on persons or objects.

“It’s not like waking up in the morning,” he said. “It was a process over weeks as reactions and vocalizations increased and improved.”

Abdulla’s son was most optimistic when he heard his mother making sounds, Müller said, but it took a while for doctors to make out words. Soon, Abdulla clearly pronounced her son’s name, greeted doctors in Arabic, and started to cite Quran verses.

Schoen Clinic in Germany.Schoen Klinik

“When we realized that she was talking with us, we were ecstatic,” Müeller said.

The clinic regularly treats patients who have been in a coma for weeks or months who then regain consciousness — but the sheer length of time Abdulla had been in a coma made this an extremely rare case.

“None us had ever experienced that someone wakes again after 27 years,” he said.

Webair told The Emerati-based newspaper The National: “She was making strange sounds and I kept calling the doctors to examine her. They said everything was normal.

“Then, three days later, I woke up to the sound of someone calling my name. It was her. She was calling my name. I was flying with joy. For years I have dreamt of this moment, and my name was the first word she said.”

Webair has said he shared his mother’s story to give others hope.

Now back in the U.A.E. and receiving regular hospital care, Abdulla is still suffering the long-term consequences of brain damage. She is confined to a wheelchair, although doctors have seen improvement in her hand movement recently. Müller said she will likely always be in need of care, but is now able to consciously perceive her environment and communicate using speech.

“She takes part in family life and if somebody is gone traveling she notices and wants to know where that person is,” Müller, who is still in touch with the family, said.

Carlo Angerer

Carlo Angerer is a multimedia producer and reporter based in Mainz, Germany. 

Patrick Smith

Patrick Smith is a London-based editor and reporter for NBC News Digital.

How a Muscovite spent 2 months in a coma and did not recognize the world around him

The word “coma” often sounds like a delayed death sentence. But sometimes people come back from the border between this and that world. And each such return is a real miracle, and for those who return, sometimes it is a journey through time.

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Huge eyes and shock

Recently, a resident of Moscow came out of a coma. The man underwent surgery two months ago. Everything seemed to go well, but suddenly he fell into a coma. The whole coronavirus story was just beginning then, so when he came to his senses and found out that his wife would not be able to come to him because of the quarantine, he was very surprised.

The doctor had to tell the patient what happened during the time that he fell out of life. A lot has happened, not every year is so eventful. All the stories about self-isolation, restrictions and scheduled walks sounded so implausible that he did not immediately believe. But the wife confirmed everything in a telephone conversation.

“I slowly tell him about what is happening: that people have started to go out for a walk, that before you could only go to the store. Well, of course, these are huge eyes and shock: does it really happen? If we had been told earlier that everything would be closed and we would go for walks in masks and gloves according to the schedule, we would have laughed, ”she said.

This is a real miracle

A 21-year-old American named Sam Schmidt managed to wake up from a coma just an hour before the doctors were about to disconnect him from the machines.

In 2011, while a student at the University of Arizona, Schmidt was in a car accident and received several severe injuries, including a head injury. Doctors tried to bring the young man back to life, but achieved only a stable serious condition.

Sam was diagnosed with brain death and left in a coma. Nearly ten years later, the young man’s relatives were asked to consider taking him off life support. The doctors explained that if not a single change has been recorded for such a long period, it is no longer worth waiting for them.

In addition, they asked the parents to discuss the possibility of a subsequent transfer of the body for the removal of donor organs. Thus, Sam, after death, could help someone survive and his own death would not be in vain.

And now, after the parents made these difficult decisions with a heavy heart, Schmidt moved his hand. For the first time in all this time, he showed signs of life for the first time. There was no question of any disconnection after that, and after a while the man woke up.

He himself can already speak and in a conversation with journalists called his return a miracle.

“I feel good even though I’m still in a wheelchair, it’s a miracle, a real miracle!” he said.

The return of another American from the other world was not at all as rosy and wonderful as that of Sam Schmidt.

Terry Wallace from Arkansas has recently become a local celebrity – he was covered in all the TV channels, written in all the newspapers. But this is not at all the popularity that they dream of.

Wake up as a star

Twenty years ago Terry was 19 years old. Life was wonderful, all the best was ahead. Despite such a young age, he had already managed to get married and raised a little daughter. And then a terrible car accident.

Such things always happen suddenly, no one expects them. Terry’s car broke through the metal barriers and fell into the abyss. He was rescued, but he did not regain consciousness.

At the time of the tragedy, Terry’s wife, Sandy, was 17 years old. The newly minted father-in-law told her that she needed to continue to live, and not devote the rest of her life to caring for a comatose patient. Sandy didn’t need much begging.

Twenty years later, the man woke up. They say the first thing he said was: “Where is my mother?” When the delight of loved ones and the surprise of the doctors were already behind, Terry learned that his wife had given birth to three more children from another man.

And his baby, who was just born before the car accident, grew up and became a stripper.

However, Sandy now intends to sue her husband’s parents to get custody of him. It is believed that this is due to the allowance for the care of a disabled person. In the States, they are quite significant.

It was hard to breathe

Some stories end even more sadly. An American firefighter, 44-year-old Don Herbert, lay in a coma for ten years and woke up only to die a year later.

In 1995, Herbert was trapped under the rubble of a burning building. For some time he had enough oxygen in the cylinder, but then the air ran out. There was nothing else to breathe, and while colleagues were looking for him under the rubble, Don fell into a coma.

Last spring, Herbert’s attending physician changed his medications. Suddenly, the patient began to show signs of life, and then came out of a coma. It would seem that all the worst was left behind, but a year later, Don caught a cold.

At first it seemed that it was a common cold, but breathing became more and more difficult every day. In February, the man was hospitalized with a diagnosis of pneumonia and he died in the hospital.

Who knows, maybe Herbert was one of the first victims of the coronavirus, but then it was not talked about yet.

Mobile phones and 11 grandchildren

But the most incredible story happened to 65-year-old Polish resident Jan Grzebski. Like the hero of the previous story, the man spent almost 20 years in a coma, the difference is only in time.

Grzebski fell into a coma in 1988 after a serious accident on the railroad where he worked. He was 46 years old. Yana’s wife did not “live on”, but was on duty at her husband’s bed every day, constantly changing the position of his body in order to prevent muscle atrophy.

THE LONGEST COMA EVER REPORTED IN MEDICAL HISTORY
Kutana na Jan Grzebski alizaliwa mnamo 1942 huko Dzialdowo, Poland. Miaka mitatu ya kwanza ya maisha ya Jan yalikuwa yamejaa migogoro kutokana na hali mbaya ya uchumi wa Nchi. pic.twitter.com/Nffemn7LsX

– Dr. Pierre Binxete 🇹🇿 (@PeterBinxete) April 26, 2020

The doctors hadn’t hoped for a happy outcome for a long time, but Jan woke up. And what was his surprise when he saw a new world around him. After all, he “fell asleep” back in the communist era and “woke up” in a completely different country.

“When I fell into a coma, there was only tea and vinegar in the shops, meat was given out on ration cards, and there were queues everywhere for fuel. Now I see people on the streets with mobile phones, and there are so many goods on the shelves of stores that my head starts to spin,” he admits.

Grzebski was expecting other shocks, no less pleasant. When he woke up, he found out that all his four children were happily married and he had already become a grandfather 11 times.

The whole extended family is incredibly happy about Jan’s return. But most of all, of course, the wife. Grzebski himself believes that his wife accomplished a real feat for him, and he will never be able to forget it.

Return from the next world. What do they think about after a long coma

08:00 09.10.2017
(updated: 13:26 10.10.2017)

https://ria.ru/20171009/1506397847.html

Return from the next world. What do they think about after a long coma

Return from the next world. What do they think about after a long coma – RIA Novosti, 10/10/2017

Return from the other world. What do they think about after a long coma

A state one step away from death, complete loss of consciousness and illusory chances for recovery. Coma is a dangerous and unpredictable state. Before doctors and… RIA Novosti, 10/09/2017

2017-10-09T08:00

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Society, Moscow

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MOSCOW, October 9 — RIA Novosti, Irina Khaletskaya. A state one step away from death, complete loss of consciousness and ghostly chances for recovery. Coma is a dangerous and unpredictable state. The question arises before doctors and relatives: whether to expect a miracle, whether it makes sense to support the patient with the help of devices.

RIA Novosti correspondent asked people who came out of a long coma whether they were able to return to normal life and what they felt while in this state.

Russian scientists have found a new way to treat traumatic brain injuries

September 25, 2017, 17:04

Elena Mitrokhina, stayed in a coma for two weeks.
Learned to move again

“After work, I was driving home in a taxi and got into an accident. I was sitting in the back, strapped to my seat. From a secondary road, another car flew into us – you could say right at me. The taxi driver was not guilty, he was driving according to the rules.

My diagnosis was terrible: a closed craniocerebral injury, a severe brain contusion with the formation of hematomas and hemorrhages. I hit my head, beat off my lungs, my heart. I received seven fractures of the bones of the pelvis and the lateral mass of the sacrum on the right. Fell into a coma of the second degree.

I can’t describe what my relatives went through, I didn’t feel or see anything. Those two weeks just fell out of my life.

The greatest difficulty began when I regained consciousness. The ability to think returned to me fairly quickly, but there were problems with short-term memory. I didn’t understand where I was. The brain decided that I was flying in an airplane, something happened to it, so now I’m in another city. This thought was intrusive: they told me about an accident, but a minute later I asked again what had happened. In the early days, I did not recognize my mother. She smiled at her sister, but did not understand who it was. She had difficulty pronouncing sentences, slowly and one word at a time.

© Fotolia / Sudok1Medical equipment

© Fotolia / Sudok1

I was not allowed to get out of bed, move, sit down – and this was the most difficult test. Mom just turns away – I sit down. I remember her long persuasion that this should not be done. I protested.

A month later I was sent home to wait for the bones to heal. They grew together after another two months, after which I was sent to neurorehabilitation. I liked it there, I did not feel abnormal, because other patients were also in a serious condition. And everyone fought, overcame themselves.

I had to work on my recovery almost around the clock. From early morning I took up the exercises and did not stop until late at night. I wanted to learn how to walk.

I “plowed”, despite the pain and tears: I walked up the stairs, if I had a free minute, I juggled. I read somewhere that this is how brain cells grow.

There was a partial paralysis of the muscles of the body, so even in the queue for the procedures I trained myself and stood on one leg. After a rehabilitation course, I was discharged with a diagnosis of “walking almost straight” – and it was a colossal breakthrough.

Now I am left with paralysis of two fingers. And also – paresis of the vocal cords, breathing suffers. ENT doctors do not know the cause, perhaps the consequences of artificial lung ventilation or brain injury.

It was probably not difficult for me to return to normal life, because I tried to treat it as temporary difficulties. “

© Fotolia / Sudok1 Artificial lung ventilation coma two months .
Recorded dreams

“I have a rare brain disease, anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis (the most acute form of encephalitis. — Ed.). Little is known about the disease. There is a movie called Mind on Fire, based on real events from the life of a journalist with the same disease. She was lucky because she got a good doctor and was able to determine the diagnosis. In my case, specialists could not understand what was happening for a long time.

Letters from the other world. How people correspond with deceased relatives

August 31, 2017 1:56 pm

I went into a coma for several months. Some people claim that nothing happened to them in a coma, and dreams are nothing more than hallucinations from pills. However, I remember a lot. Some flashes had nothing to do with reality, others were connected. For example: I am lying in a hospital bed, there is a window in front of me, monitors on the right, a door on the left. A man comes in, looks at me, goes to the screens, starts switching something. I want to ask where my husband and children are, but nothing works. I close my eyes in the hope that I will wake up at home, but again I find myself in the ward.

Once I saw a train accident where many people died. Only a year later it turned out that at the same time there was a major disaster in Ukraine: I saw the place of the tragedy on the news and recognized it.

There is a book by Dolores Cannon ”Between Life and Death”. It described a case with ball lightning, how it passes through a person. Once I dreamed that such a lightning pierces me, disperses throughout my body and causes terrible pain. So I woke up.

When I came to my senses, it took time to learn to speak and write. I typed my dreams on the tablet and it brought me back to real life.

I was lucky that my memory did not disappear, I began to remember in fits and starts what happened to me before the coma. The only moment that I can’t remember in any way is how I tried to commit suicide, but my husband managed to save me. I didn’t realize anything, I was affected by the disease.

© Fotolia / Sudok1In the patient’s room

© Fotolia / Sudok1

And the disease, as they say, did its job. Hyperkinesis of the limbs appeared (suddenly arising movements in the muscles on the wrong command of the brain. — Note ed.). If it weren’t for my husband, I wouldn’t have got out on my own. He believes in me, and for seven years everything has been on him: the house, the children, me. Now I am recovering very slowly.”

Comment by neurosurgeon Albert Batyrov:

“Staying in a coma for more than three days indicates that a person will not be able to return to his normal state upon awakening. Here you need to take into account the reserve capabilities of the body, individual characteristics and injuries.

By degree severity, four degrees of coma are distinguished, awakening is most real at the first two. When a person is in a coma of the fourth degree, upon waking up, most often he falls into a vegetative state – he becomes a “vegetable”. If a person remains conscious and has not lost his mind, he has every chance to recover But it’s a lot of work.

But the voices of relatives who are in a coma do not hear – this is from the realm of fantasy. There are gradations of oppression of consciousness: moderate or deep stupor and stupor. Coma is a complete loss of consciousness, when the perception of external stimuli is practically excluded.

Such conversations are most needed by relatives themselves, purely from a psychological point of view.

© Fotolia / Evgeniy KalinovskiyThe doctor checks the dropper

© Fotolia / Evgeniy Kalinovskiy

If the patient does not come out of the coma for a long time, then the relatives face a difficult question – to wait for awakening or disconnect from the devices.