Who woke up from the longest coma?

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.

Who has been in coma the longest?

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.

Has anyone ever woken up from a coma after 20 years?

Terry Wayne Wallis, who woke up from an almost 20-year coma in 2003, died last Tuesday at the age of 57, according to an obituary posted by a funeral home.

Do people dream in comas?

Yet many people who have recovered from comas report dreams into which something of the outside world penetrated. Others recall nightmares that seemed to go on and on. Whether they dream or not probably depends on the cause of the coma.

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.

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

How long do comas last?

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.

How long can you live in a coma?

A coma doesn't usually last longer than several weeks. People who are unconscious for a longer time might transition to a lasting vegetative state, known as a persistent vegetative state, or brain death.

How short 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.

How does a coma feel?

They won't normally respond to sound or pain, or be able to communicate or move voluntarily. Someone in a coma will also have very reduced basic reflexes such as coughing and swallowing. They may be able to breathe on their own, although some people require a machine to help them breathe.

How many hours of sleep is a coma?

Clinically, a coma can be defined as the inability consistently to follow a one-step command. It can also be defined as a score of ≤ 8 on the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) lasting ≥ 6 hours. For a patient to maintain consciousness, the components of wakefulness and awareness must be maintained.

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].

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.

Can you have your period while in a coma?

A case of pituitary coma with continuing menstruation is presented. This association is extremely rare, but a history of recent menstrual periods does not exclude advanced hypopituitarism from the differential diagnosis of severe hyponatraemia.

Does a person in a coma know they are alive?

Someone who is in a coma is unconscious and has minimal brain activity. They're alive but can't be woken up and show no signs of awareness. The person's eyes will be closed and they'll appear to be unresponsive to their environment.

How does brain death happen?

Brain death can occur when the blood and/or oxygen supply to the brain is stopped. This can be caused by: cardiac arrest – when the heart stops beating and the brain is starved of oxygen. heart attack – a serious medical emergency that occurs when the blood supply to the heart is suddenly blocked.

Can you breathe on your own in a coma?

Someone in a coma will also have very reduced basic reflexes such as coughing and swallowing. They may be able to breathe on their own, although some people require a machine to help them breathe. Over time, the person may start to gradually regain consciousness and become more aware.

Can you give birth in a coma?

Doctors believe Mrs. Cooper's delivery of a healthy, full-term baby is the only such birth by a woman in a coma or semiconscious state going back at least to 1977. "I don't think we really expected she was going to go to term," said Dr. Baha Sibai, one of the doctors who delivered Alexis.

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 you grow hair in a coma?

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 sneeze?

The person can sneeze, cough, and even smile or cry at times. The person might at times move their legs or arms. A person in a PVS may have automatic reactions to touch, such as drawing a body part away, to sound - such as turning their head toward the sound, or light such as blinking their eyelids.

How do they keep you alive in a coma?

The vast majority continue to be kept alive via hydration and nutrition delivered through a feeding tube.

Do people in comas eat?

Nourishing the unconscious person requires bypassing the normal chewing and swallowing process, and at times avoiding the gastrointestinal tract altogether. A nasogastric tube bypasses mouth and esophagus to deliver liquid nutrition directly to the stomach.

Is coma like sleep?

Coma is a state of consciousness that is similar to deep sleep, except no amount of external stimuli (such as sounds or sensations) can prompt the brain to become awake and alert. A person in a coma can't even respond to pain. A wide range of illnesses, conditions and events can cause coma.

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.

Can coma be cured?

Sometimes the cause of a coma can be completely reversed, and the affected person regains function. Recovery usually occurs gradually. A person with severe brain damage might have permanent disabilities or never regain consciousness.