What do people feel in a coma? We will examine in more detail in this matter.
Coma is such a state of a person when he is completely unconscious, his reactions to stimuli are sharply weakened or completely absent, reflexes fade until they completely disappear, the respiratory rate is disturbed, the pulse slows down or the pulse speeds up, etc.
When a person is in a state of coma, he is between life and death. And this is dangerous because in addition to loss of consciousness, a person’s coma disrupts vital functions of the body. The classification of com will be presented below.
As a rule, this condition is a complication of a certain disease or appears as a result of some pathological case, for example, an injury, etc. Nevertheless, the clinical symptoms of coma can be very diverse, depending on the causes of its onset.
To bring a person out of a coma, it is necessary to carry out resuscitation measures that are aimed at maintaining the basic functions of the body in order to prevent brain death.
What people feel in a coma is of interest to many.
The mechanism of action of coma
The basis of this human condition is two main mechanisms:
- bilateral damage to the cerebral cortex;
- primary or secondary damage to its trunk, where the reticular formation is located, which supports the cerebral cortex in tone and activity.
This is a brain coma.
Damage to the brain stem occurs in cases when a person has a stroke or traumatic brain injury. Secondary disorders, as a rule, occur when metabolic processes in the body change, for example, with poisoning, diseases of the endocrine system, etc.
In addition, there are cases of a combination of both mechanisms of the onset of coma, which is observed very often. It is believed that this is the line between life and death.
As a result of this, the normal transmission of nerve impulses in the human brain becomes impossible, the activity of all structures that go into autonomous mode is lost. Thus, the brain temporarily ceases to function and control the processes occurring in the body.
Classification com
Coma conditions are divided into several varieties, depending on various factors and signs. The main classifications are those that differ in causative factor and in depth of coma.
Due to the occurrence of coma it happens:
- with primary neurological disorder (when a certain process in the nervous system became its cause ) ;
- with secondary neurological disorder (when the cause of the onset of coma is not connected with the nervous system ).
Establishing the causes of this condition is necessary in order to correctly determine the patient’s treatment tactics.
What is an artificial coma?
From a medical point of view, this is a temporary immersion of the patient in an unconscious state. The activity of the cortex and subcortex of the brain is inhibited and all reflex functions are completely disabled.
Artificial coma is used only in the most extreme cases. That is, when there is no other way to protect the patient’s body from irreversible brain changes that threaten his life. This happens with edema of the brain tissue and compression effects on them, as well as with hemorrhage or bleeding, accompanied by severe craniocerebral injuries or pathologies of cerebral vessels.
General anesthesia can be replaced with an artificial coma in cases of large-scale emergency surgical interventions or directly on the brain.
Coma of neurological (primary) genesis
This kind of coma happens:
- For traumatic brain injuries (traumatic).
- With violations of the cardiovascular system, as well as cerebrovascular disorders (cerebrovascular coma). This happens with a stroke. A person in a coma may also be for other reasons.
- As a result of epileptic seizures.
- A coma that has arisen in the process of an inflammatory disease of the brain or its membrane (meningoencephalitis).
- As a consequence of the tumor process in the brain (hypertension).
Coma of secondary origin
Varieties of this state are:
- endocrine coma (for example, with diabetes mellitus), thyrotoxic, hypothyroid (for pathologies of the thyroid gland), hypocorticoid (acute adrenal insufficiency), hypolithitic (acute deficiency of hormones produced by the pituitary gland);
- toxic coma (during liver or kidney failure, poisoning, overdose of alcohol or drugs, as well as cholera;
- hypotoxic form (in severe forms of heart failure, as well as in anemia, obstruction of the lungs);
- coma that occurs when exposed to any physical factors (hypothermia, overheating, with electric shock, etc.);
- coma, the cause of which is dehydration, or with a deficiency of electrolytes.
Why is a coma dangerous? Is there a way out of a coma?
According to statistics, the most common cause of a coma is a stroke. In the second place of this list is an overdose of narcotic substances, and in third - the consequences of diabetes.
Classifications of coma according to the depth of oppression of consciousness: 1 degree (the so-called "subcortical" coma, mild degree), 2 degrees (anterolateral, moderate severity), 2 degrees (posterior, deep), 4 degrees (beyond, extremely serious condition).
The transition from one degree of coma to another is sometimes very sharp, so it is sometimes quite difficult to determine the stage of coma in a patient.
Coma 1 degree
This condition is called subcortical coma and is characterized by inhibition of the activity of the cerebral cortex, as well as subcortical formations of this organ. This kind of coma differs from the rest in the following signs:
- feeling as if the patient is in a dream;
- disorientation of a person in time and location;
- lack of awareness of reality, slurred speech;
- the disappearance of reactions to pain stimuli;
- increased muscle tone;
- amplification of deep reflexes;
- inhibition of surface reflexes;
- maintaining the reaction of the pupils to light stimuli, strabismus, spontaneity of eye movements;
- saved breathing;
- tachycardia (palpitations).
Coma 2 degrees
At this stage of the cerebral coma, the activity of the subcortical zones begins to slow down, which characterizes this stage with the following conditions:
- the occurrence of tonic convulsions or trembling of certain parts of the patient's body;
- complete lack of speech, impossibility of verbal contact with the patient;
- strong weakening of pain reactions;
- sharp oppression of both deep and superficial reflexes;
- weak reaction of pupils to light stimuli, their narrowing;
- fever and excessive sweating;
- sharp changes in blood pressure indicators;
- tachycardia;
- violation of respiratory activity (respiratory arrest, various depths of breaths).
Coma 3 degrees
Pathological processes occur in the medulla oblongata. In this case, the risk to the patient’s life is quite large, and the predictions of recovery after a coma are significantly reduced. What do those in a coma feel? Grade 3 is characterized by the following conditions:
- reactions to pain are completely absent;
- lack of reflexes;
- sharp inhibition of muscle tone;
- complete absence of pupil reactions;
- shallow breathing, expressed its arrhythmia;
- a sharp decrease in blood pressure;
- cramps.
What else is a coma? Exit from a coma does not always occur.
Coma 4 degrees
In this state, a person has absolutely no signs of brain activity. And it manifests itself like this:
- lack of reflexes;
- full expansion of the pupils;
- muscle atony;
- a sharp decrease in body temperature and blood pressure (to zero);
- absolute lack of spontaneous breathing.
Coma 4 degrees - this is almost a 100% chance of death.
The consequences of coma
A coma usually lasts from one to several weeks. However, a huge number of cases are known when this condition lasted much longer - up to several months and even years.
The patient returns to consciousness slowly. At first, he can recover only a few minutes or hours, and over time, this time increases. The return of a person to a normal state largely depends on how deep the coma occurred in him, as well as on a number of reasons why this condition arose.
The consequences of coma are sometimes very serious. During this condition, brain damage occurs, so some functions of the body may not be restored in a person. Very often, after a coma, people cannot walk, make hand movements, there is a slowdown in speech activity or its complete absence.
After a coma of the first degree, a person, as a rule, quickly comes to his senses, and his body in most cases does not lose its abilities. After a coma of the third degree, the brain is destroyed almost completely. Accordingly, the field of this person no longer has the opportunity to live a full life.
The consequences of coma can also be a deterioration in memory, changes in human behavior (aggressiveness or lethargy), decreased attention and reactions. After suffering a coma, people recover their abilities for a very long time, even in the domestic sphere - self-nutrition, bathing, changing clothes, etc.
What does a person feel in a state of coma?
The experiences and sensations of a person who is in a coma were studied over the years in various countries of the world. However, there are still no reliable facts about this.
Nevertheless, scientists still made some conclusions, for example, it was scientifically proven that even those people who are in a state of deep coma experience certain conditions, and the brain has some activity. Thus, it turned out that the patient in a coma has an internal ability to respond to external stimuli. This fact is due to the fact that special research equipment recorded special brain waves emitted at the moments when relatives and close ones speak with a person. What else do people feel in a coma?
The patient internally responds to tactile sensations, which can also be confirmed by heart palpitations, changes in respiratory rate, or changes in blood pressure. This can confirm that a person experiencing a coma, in a certain way reacts to events in the external world, and responds to them. What people feel in a coma can tell those who have successfully left it.
Many people who have experienced this condition share their feelings and experiences. Some of them claim that they were in a kind of altered state of consciousness, when they seemed to travel between worlds, could see their dead relatives and even talk to them. Other patients claim that they were conscious, heard the speech of doctors, relatives who were close to them, but could neither move nor confirm in any way their ability to understand everything. The third group of people in a coma could have various dreams, or they were in a state of unconsciousness, when after leaving a coma they could not remember anything at all.