Is it possible to be in a coma for years

Rapid action may be needed to preserve life and brain function. A person who is experiencing a coma cannot be awakened, and they do not react to the surrounding environment. They do not respond to pain, light, or sound in the usual way, and they do not make voluntary actions.

Although they do not wake up, their body follows normal sleep patterns. Coma may occur for various reasons, such as intoxication, a disease or infection that affects the central nervous system CNS , a serious injury, and hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation. Sometimes, a doctor will induce a coma using medications, for example, to protect the patient from intense pain during a healing process, or to preserve higher brain function following another form of brain trauma.

A coma does not usually last for more than a few weeks. How long these will take to develop, and how long they will continue, depend on the underlying cause.

Before entering a coma, a person with worsening hypoglycemia low blood sugar , or hypercapnia higher blood CO2 levels , for example, will first experience mild agitation. Without treatment, their ability to think clearly will gradually decrease. Finally, they will lose consciousness. If a coma results from a severe injury to the brain or a subarachnoid hemorrhage, symptoms may appear suddenly.

Anyone who is with the person should try to remember what occurred just before the coma started, because this information will help determine the underlying cause and give a better idea of what treatment to apply.

Alert is the most conscious state, and unconscious is the least. This helps the health professional assess whether this is likely to be an emergency. If the person is alert, there is no risk of coma. Patients with deep unconsciousness may be at risk of asphyxiation. They may need medical help to secure the airways and ensure they continue to breathe. This could be a tube that passes through the nose or mouth, into the lungs.

In , neuroscientists using fMRI scanning technology observed brain activity in a man who had been in a coma for 12 years after a road traffic accident. For example, when they asked the man to imagine he was playing tennis or walking round his house, his brain activity reflected that he was thinking of doing these things.

Scientists now believe that 15 to 20 percent of people in a so-called vegetative state may be fully conscious. Advances in technology mean that we are better able to understand what people are experiencing during a coma.

A person who is visiting a friend or family member who is in a coma can speak to them as they normally would, for example, explaining what has been happening during the day. It is unclear how much they can understand, but there is a chance the person may be able to hear and understand. They may like to listen to music.

Research has also suggested that stimulating the senses of touch, smell, sound, and vision may help the person recover. Diabetes : If the blood sugar levels of a person with diabetes rise too much, this is known as hyperglycemia. If they become too low, this is hypoglycemia. If hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia continue for too long, a coma can result. Hypoxia, or lack of oxygen : If the supply of oxygen to the brain is reduced or cut off, for example, during a heart attack , stroke, or near drowning, a coma may result.

The person is still alive, but the brain is functioning at its lowest stage of alertness. You can't shake and wake up someone who is in a coma like you can someone who has just fallen asleep. When one of these things happens, it can mess up how the brain's cells work. This can hurt the parts of the brain that make someone conscious, and if those parts stop working, the person will stay unconscious.

Someone in a coma usually needs to be cared for in the intensive care unit ICU of the hospital. There, the person can get extra care and attention from doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff. They make sure the person gets fluids, nutrients, and any medicines needed to keep the body as healthy as possible.

These are sometimes given through a tiny plastic tube inserted in a vein or through a feeding tube that brings fluids and nutrients directly to the stomach. Some comatose people are unable to breathe on their own and need the help of a ventilator say: VEN-tih-lay-ter , a machine that pumps air into the lungs through a tube placed in the windpipe.

The hospital staff also tries to prevent bedsores in someone who is comatose. Bedsores are open sores on the body that come from lying in one place for too long without moving at all. It can be very upsetting and frustrating for a person's family to see someone they love in a coma, and they may feel scared and helpless. 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. 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 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.

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.

Philip J. Fry, the main character of Groening's cartoon Futurama , is a pizza delivery boy who was cryonically frozen in the year The series begins with Fry being revived from his freeze-induced coma in the year 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 people from trying to be the real-life Philip J.