Why a page on comas?

Some movies and news reports show the trauma that family members go through as they wait for a sign that their beloved father, son, wife, etc is coming back to them.

As I've been in a coma, my recollections of that time may help others who are trying to be supportive.

What is a coma?

I suppose it is basically a state of unconsciousness that a person can not be aroused from.

External stimuli will not receive the expected response.

Not all comas and patient activity levels are the same. What is described below is what happened to me.

Why did I go into a coma?

I had a major motorbike crash and broke quite a number of large bones in my body as well as losing big chunks of flesh from my legs.

I remember the point of impact with excruciating pain in my right leg as it was crushed between the bike and car. That was immediately followed by a Superman impersonation as I flew through the air over the car bonnet and moments later crumpled into the roadway. Not long after that I passed out.

Did I pass out due to blood loss, the endorphins pumping around inside me, the stress of large amounts of bone marrow (fat) now in my blood, or did my brain shut down because it simply couldn't cope with all the signals it was getting?

When did the coma start?

As I was laying on the roadway, I was aroused back into consciousness twice, so technically I wasn't in a coma yet!

First, a tow truck operator was shaking me by the shoulders and yelling, "Hey buddy, who do we contact?" This was in the days when the first tow truck on the scene got the job so tow truck operators would sit in their trucks at strategic accident sites waiting for crashes to happen.

After I'd responded to him, I next woke up as someone was cutting my pants off me. I managed to open my eyes and see that it was an ambulance officer. I told him not to do that as they cost a lot of money. He responded, "They aren't much good to you now mate!" I remember thinking "That doesn't sound too good" as I passed out again.

Outside looking in

I next remember someone talking nearby me. "Michael, if you can hear me open your eyes". I hate being called Michael and wanted to tell this person that, but my lips wouldn't part let alone make a sound, and my eyes refused to move also.

The voice asked me again. Next, I felt my eyelid being forced open and felt actual pain as a really bright light was shone into my eye. I wanted to recoil, shut my eye, pull my head away, forcibly take this person's hand off me and tell them to stop it, but instead my head stayed still, my arms wouldn't move, and I couldn't even make a sound.

The bright light was removed, and I tried to make out what my eye was looking at, but couldn't focus it. I guess the hazy roundish thing I could make out was a doctor's face.

I was getting used to having my eye held open and was working hard to try to focus it or move it to show whoever this was that I was conscious, but nothing happened.

The bright light was shone in my eye once more, then my eyelid was finally released.

I had been working really hard to try to respond. I tried to find anything I could control. I progressively worked my way around my body trying everything to see if it worked. Nothing! If anything was working, I couldn't feel that it was. I guessed that maybe I didn't have much energy so tried even the smallest muscles I could think of. Even though nothing was moving, I felt like I'd done a full workout but maybe I was just mentally exhausted. I passed back into unconsciousness.

Hold on tight

I washed in and out of consciousness. Every time I was conscious I'd do another set of checks to determine if I could move or control anything yet.

There were another few bright light in the eye sessions that I recall. One time I woke up with the light hurting me. I gather the torchlight in the eye test is part of the regular assessment cycle, so there would have been a whole heap of these that I was totally unconscious for.

I remember waking up to the voice of my mother and noting that my arms felt uncomfortable. My mother's voice was saying "Show me your big, beautiful blue eyes". The sensation down my left arm changed as she said that. Then it registered that she was squeezing my hand. I tried to squeeze back but nothing happened.

I wanted to respond to let her know that I had heard her and could feel her holding my hand. I tried everything I could think of to give her a response. Both eyes together weren't working, how about a single eyelid? Trying them in turn, still nothing. Hmmm, how about flaring my nostrils? Nothing!

My other arm moved and I could make out my right hand was also being held as my girlfriend's voice started up. "Come on Mick, show us your eyes".

I tried moving every muscle I could think of, but nothing responded still.

I didn't know how to communicate with them that I knew they were there, that I could hear them, feel them touching me and that I was doing all I could think of to respond.

How to treat someone who is in a coma?

For the short periods of time that I was conscious, it gave me some comfort to know there were people there for me that cared. It also gave me a degree of concern that I must have been in a bad way from what they were saying and how they were treating me.

Every time I was conscious I used to try really hard to open my eyes, move something and make a sound. Every time I failed and also exhausted myself from the effort.

In my case, I was able to receive sensory stimulus from time to time, I was just not able to respond to it. If other comas are similar to what I experienced, hearing works fine when the person in a coma is "conscious". The sense of touch also works, but as the signals differ it is only likely to be discernable if the touch varies. eg. Holding hands did not register, but having my hand squeezed or arm stroked did.

My sense of smell also worked as I recall being able to smell the cigarette smoke on my mother's breath when she kissed me on the cheek. It didn't register straight away. Initially it was just a registration of something unpleasant. It took my brain a little while to realise it was the smell on my mother's breath that was registering.

Summary

I don't think it helped me too much to hear my mother and my girlfriend talking about me expressing how badly messed up I was. I think my brain was struggling to understand what had happened to me, and this was extra input that only served to further overload it.

I do think it helped to know that my mother and my girlfriend were there to support me and that I wasn't going through the darkness all alone.

I believe that knowing I was still part of other people's lives gave me some strength and determination to overcome whatever was stopping me from interacting with them.

I do not recall the exact moment or events as I came out of the coma, but I do remember being in intense pain.

I also remember being further traumatised when I could finally open my eyes and I saw that I had both legs in traction and bolts were in both of my shins for the ropes and weights to be attached.

There certainly is a lot of information for your brain to cope with when you see all these bits poking out of you.