Info about Comas
Comas – A Trial for Both the Sides
Regardless of their type, comas can really put you through a lot of denial, self pity, anger, exhaustion, frayed nerves, grief, stress, uncertainty, and fear if any of your loved one is suffering from them. Comas are not good at all and the person suffering from them is just going through the darkest days of his life; there is not much you or anyone can do to get that person back except hoping for the best. Comas make the sufferers go in a state where they are not conscious; the worst part is that no one knows how long this state of unconsciousness would last for.
The person suffering from coma does not know what is going on around in the surrounding and he or she cannot respond to anything. People around him are also senseless to him since he cannot see, feel, or do anything. Comas usually occur when someone has been through a few traumatic brain events and this would include; a hard blow to your head, heart stroke, heart seizure, some intense sickness, a drug overdose, or lack in oxygen and breathing. Another worst part about comas is that not only the comatose patient is suffering from this problem but the people around him, his loved ones are also suffering looking at him being helpless.
Comas are not categorized as onetime events; they can occur again. Many people end up suffering from comas for several years, going through different stages until they are finally independent and conscious. The person who gets up from a coma is never the same again because it would have been surely a horrible incident or accident that left him in the coma; he will not forget that. Loved one and family members have to face a lot of trouble as the victim survives through all the stages one by one.
Comas are so horrible that if someone goes into a coma; the family members get uncertain and too worried because there is no surety about how long the victim would stay in his coma; may be for the rest of his life as well. It is important that the sufferer makes progress from stage to stage otherwise if he gets stuck at the same stage; he might never gain his consciousness back. All we can say is that always be happy and try to keep others happy as well; issues like comas are terrible and it’s better to stay away from its triggers.
About Comas: Different Types, Causes and Treatments
A coma, which is the Greek word for deep sleep, is when a person is unconscious for six hours or more and cannot be woken up. A person in a coma will not be able to respond to stimuli, light, sound, or even paid. Another term for someone in a coma is called comatose, though there are different types of levels of being in a coma, as per the Glasgow Coma Scale.
Causes
There are a variety of things that can cause a coma, mainly due to injury of the brain. Comas are typically caused by increased pressure, loss of oxygen, buildup of toxins or bleeding; the result of the coma may be temporary or permanent. Coma causes include blunt trauma to the head which causes the brain to swell and bleed, swelling of brain tissue due to a lack of oxygen, electrolyte imbalance or imbalance of hormones, bleeding from a trauma or injury as well as high blood pressure and tumors, a stroke which causes a lack of blood flow to the brain stem, extremely high levels of blood sugar, oxygen deprivation, central nervous system infections, continuous seizures and certain toxins.
Types
There are five main types of comas including Toxic-metabolic encephalopathy, anoxic brain injury, persistent vegetative state, locked-in syndrome, and brain death. Toxic-metabolic encephalopathy is an acute condition associated with symptoms like confusion and delirium and is typically temporary and reversible. Anoxic brain injury may also be reversed in some cases and is caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain such as from heart attack, injury, drowning, drug overdose or poisoning. A persistent vegetative state is a severe state of unconsciousness where the person is completely unaware of his surroundings. Brain death is the permanent, irreversible condition of all brain functions and can be caused by severe injury to the brain. Locked-in syndrome is a rare neurological condition where the entire body is paralyzed except for eye muscle movements.
Glasgow Coma Scale
In order to determine the severity of a coma, doctors use the Glasgow Coma Scale with assigns a numerical score to each coma patient based on their ability to open their eyes, speak, or make motor responses. The scale ranges from a lighter coma where they can squeeze their eyes shut and move a hand away from painful stimuli to a deep coma level with no speech, eye opening or body movement.
Treatments
The treatment for coma patients depends solely on the type of coma and what caused it. Infection-induced comas may be reversed with strong antibiotics while Glucose can be given to patients in a coma as a result of diabetic shock. There are surgeries available for coma patients who have pressure and swelling in the brain and well as seizure and other medications.
The severity of the coma will tell a patient’s family what they can expect as far as a prognosis is concerned. Some patients remain very low on the Glasgow Scale and therefore have a very small change of ever regaining consciousness, in which case they will “pull the plug” and allow the patient to die naturally. Comas can last from anywhere between a few hours to several years. While it is rare for patients to wake up after a year, it is possible.