What's the longest someone has been in a coma?

When Edwarda O'Bara died on 21 November 2012, she had survived 15,663 days (about 42 years) in a coma. Born in 1953, in Miami, Florida, O'Bara suffered a childhood history of diabetes, which she successfully managed with insulin.

What's the longest someone has been in a coma and woke up?

Annie Shapiro (1913–2003) was a Canadian apron shop owner who was in a coma for 29 years because of a massive stroke and suddenly awakened in 1992. Apart from the patients in the true story Awakenings, Shapiro was the longest a person has been in a coma like state and woken up.

What's the longest someone has been in a coma and survived?

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.

How long can you stay in a coma?

A coma rarely lasts beyond two to four weeks. A coma may be the result of several conditions, including: Traumatic head injury—A severe traumatic brain injury. Stroke—A lack of or interrupted blood flow to the brain.

What is the longest comas ever?

Elaine Esposito (December 3, 1934 – November 25, 1978) held the record for the longest period of time in a coma according to Guinness World Records, having lost consciousness in 1941 and eventually dying in that condition more than 37 years later.

Woman Wakes Up after a 20-Year Long Coma | Only Human

Do you dream in a coma?

Patients in a coma appear unconscious. They do not respond to touch, sound or pain, and cannot be awakened. Their brains often show no signs of the normal sleep-wakefulness cycle, which means they are unlikely to be dreaming.

Can you hear in a coma?

Can Your Loved One Hear You? During a coma, the individual is unconscious, meaning they are unable to respond to any sounds. However, the brain may still be able to pick up on sounds from loved ones. In fact, some studies suggest talking and touching a loved one while they are in a coma may help them recover.

Do you still poop if you're in a coma?

Skin breakdown and ulcers occur commonly, since the person is unable to move and is incontinent, with no ability to control passage of urine or stool.

Does a coma feel like sleep?

A coma is a prolonged state of unconsciousness. During a coma, a person is unresponsive to their environment. The person is alive and looks like they are sleeping. However, unlike in a deep sleep, the person cannot be awakened by any stimulation, including pain.

Is coma patients living or dead?

Someone who is in a coma is unconscious and will not respond to voices, other sounds, or any sort of activity going on nearby. The person is still alive, but the brain is functioning at its lowest stage of alertness.

Do people wake up from comas?

Recovering from a coma

People who do wake up from a coma usually come round gradually. They may be very agitated and confused to begin with. Some people will make a full recovery and be completely unaffected by the coma. Others will have disabilities caused by the damage to their brain.

What's the shortest a coma can last?

Comas may last from a few hours to years. Comas outwardly resemble a state of deep sleep, but are actually quite more complex.

What do people see in a coma?

Usually, coma patients have their eyes closed and cannot see what happens around them. But their ears keep receiving sounds from the environment. In some cases, the brains of coma patients can process sounds, for example the voice of someone speaking to them [2].

How long of sleep is a coma?

Typically, a coma does not last more than a few days or couple of weeks. In some rare cases, a person might stay in a coma for several weeks, months or even years. Depending on what caused the person to go into a coma, some patients are able to return to their normal lives after leaving the hospital.

What's it like coming out of a coma?

People who do wake up from a coma usually come round gradually. They may be very agitated and confused to begin with. Some people will make a full recovery and be completely unaffected by the coma. Others will have disabilities caused by the damage to their brain.

Who was the boy in a coma for 12 years?

Martin Pistorius (born 31 December 1975) is a South African man who had locked-in syndrome and was unable to move or communicate for 12 years. When he was 12, he began losing voluntary motor control and eventually fell into a vegetative state for three years.

Why do people go into comas?

Coma is a state of prolonged loss of consciousness. It can have a variety of causes, including traumatic head injury, stroke, brain tumor, or drug or alcohol intoxication. A coma may even be caused by an underlying illness, such as diabetes or an infection. Coma is a medical emergency.

What happens to soul in coma?

The soul of a person in a coma is still there, but mostly the vegetative part of it. You see, there are three aspects of a human soul—the vegetative, the sentient and the rational. The reason a person in a coma is still alive, though unconscious, is because of the vegetative part of the soul.

Do you grow hair in a coma?

Bodily functions

Some people in a coma require a ventilator to breathe, but comatose people still require food, which their body digests as usual. In a coma the hair still grows, and muscles mass still responds to stimulus—nurses often move coma patients to keep their muscles from atrophying.

Do coma patients get their teeth brushed?

If your family member is comatose, a mouth sponge, kind of like a little chunk of sponge on a stick, can be used to swab a bacteria killing solution called Peridex on the teeth a couple of times a day. Even a very small amount of this product will do quite a bit to reduce the effect of the comatose period on the teeth.

Do coma patients feel pain?

People in a coma are completely unresponsive. They do not move, do not react to light or sound and cannot feel pain.

Where is your mind during a coma?

When someone is in a coma, they cannot interact with their environment. The brain is still working, however, and the degree of brain activity varies from patient to patient. New tools for mapping brain activity have helped doctors illuminate what is happening inside the brain, which informs their treatment and care.

What is the best way to wake someone up from a coma?

Place objects in the person's hands. Use objects with pleasant tactile sensations and different textures such as soft toys, silk scarves or books. Put a bunch of flowers in the person's room or spray their favourite perfume.

Do you lose memory after a coma?

Post-traumatic amnesia typically occurs after a survivor wakes up from a coma, a period of unconsciousness. During this time the survivor may not be able to recall certain memories. This can last from a few minutes to a couple weeks, depending on the severity of the brain injury.

How long does the brain stay alive after death?

An unexpected discovery made by an international team, examining the results of an EEG on an elderly patient, who died suddenly of a heart attack while the test was in progress. What happens in our brain when we make the transition from life to death?