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If a person spends more than a year in this condition, they have almost no chance of waking up.
What is a coma and what are its symptoms.
From ancient Greece the word „komata“ is translated as „deep sleep“.
Main symptoms of coma:
- closed eyes,
- inability to be awakened – the person does not respond,
- the eyes do not react to light.
- no response to pain.
- limbs are motionless, only reflex movements are present,
- a person breathes, but barely noticeably, irregularly, with long pauses between exhalation and inhalation.
The main cause of a coma is severe brain damage that critically affects its function. It can in turn be caused by various reasons. Here are the most common ones.
1. Traumatic brain injuries
An unsuccessful fall (e.g., while cycling or skiing), an accident, a blow to the head – any of these situations can lead to unconsciousness.
The fact is that trauma causes bleeding or swelling. Excess fluid in the rigid skull increases pressure on the brainstem. As a result, the areas responsible for consciousness can suffer.
2. Stroke
Stroke, together with traumatic brain injury, is the cause of more than 50% of coma cases.
3. Diabetes
With diabetes the risk of elevated blood sugar increases. Too high (hyperglycemia) or, conversely, too low (hypoglycemia) glucose levels can lead to the so-called diabetic coma.
4. Lack of oxygen
This factor also causes brain swelling and subsequent cell death. Therefore, it is possible to fall into a coma after drowning (even if the drowned person was pulled from the water and underwent cardiopulmonary resuscitation) or a heart attack (even if the heartbeat and blood flow to the brain were restored).
5. Infections
Infections such as encephalitis and meningitis can cause swelling of the brain, spinal cord or surrounding tissues. In severe cases this also leads to unconsciousness.
6. Poisoning
If the body cannot or does not have time to process the toxins that are in it, this leads to poisoning of the brain and death of neurons, which can sometimes result in a coma.
7. Seizures
One seizure rarely causes a coma. However, repeated seizures – the so-called status epilepticus – can lead to critical brain damage and a „deep sleep“.
8. Tumors
These are tumors that develop in the brain or its parts.
People who are in a stable vegetative state for more than a year almost lose their chance of waking up.
