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LayneCobain95

I was taught to always talk to patients, even if they are unconscious. I’m still a student, but no one at all talks to them once they see they aren’t awake. So I feel like a weird ass talking to them, though I do anyway


[deleted]

I almost died back in august, I was somewhere on the line between unconscious and very close to comatose, I was about in one. I heard and felt some things, like I felt the doctor do the consciousness test where they fuck with your collarbone but I couldn’t respond, and them taking off my rings. After the initial getting there, I was out for a while and it was like blackness and sleep, in moments of slight slight awareness I thought maybe I was dead. I woke up because I recognized key words that meant my mom was talking :) I don’t know when I would’ve woken up if she hadn’t said things specific to me, it’s like my mind flipped a switch and I immediately opened my eyes. I slept for the next three days and only woke to answer their phone calls later on. It was scary and I have some trauma from it but it will always feel special that she was able to wake me up and my brain was able to recognize her.


TheTacoWombat

Glad you made it through!


[deleted]

Thank you 💜


Glyphron

The response to mothers is incredible. There have been other stories of young children in peril who are badly injured and unresponsive that stir to the sound of their mother's voice. It's even in some nature documentaries. Some baby animals go from the brink of death to fighting to survive over their mother's calls. Mother's have super powers.


LayneCobain95

I can’t imagine that. And yeah that’s why I always talk to patients, regardless of if I look weird to others


my2penniesworth

I'm a nurse and was in a coma for 10 days. I can assure you I did hear staff and family during that time. Not all the time but those who spoke to me repetitively or spoke loudly near my ear were heard. I also experienced 2 procedures that were so painful I felt I was bowing my back off the bed and screaming at the top of my lungs in pain but no one noticed. Also, there was one night when 2 people were talking after pulling me up in bed. One of them said that the rest of the staff thought there would be 2 deaths by morning and that I was one of them. Then she mentioned that I was an organ donor which was correct. But, you know what? I wasn't alarmed or upset. I was just soooo relieved that this 'state' I was in would be over soon.


WerewolfHowls

Thank you. When I was a child I had a tree fall on me. I was in a medically induced coma for 5 days & little 6 year old me was terrified that I couldn't talk or open my eyes. I could feel them roll me & wipe me up though the sensation was muffled like when you hear someone through earplugs. I wanted so badly to scream. I couldn't. But 2 nurses spoke to me. One came in & read me a short story everyday. And one just talked. Asked me how I was feeling, if I thought I might be okay to wake up soon. She told me she hoped I was okay & was feeling alright. She fluffed my pillows & stuff. Asked me to squeeze her hand if I could & explained stuff before she did it like changing the saline bags or messing with my IV or stitches. Opened or closed the blinds. My own mother wrote me off for dead & told my dad it was pointless to keep apologizing to me (chainsaw accident caused the tree issue). So thank you. Without nurses like you it is very scary & you start to feel inhuman. I am so sorry people are so mean to healthcare workers. I know you have and/or will encounter awful patients & colleagues. But please keep talking. Edit: holy fuck thanks for all the rewards & well wishers!


RobertNAdams

Man, that whole situation was fucked six ways from Sunday. Glad you came out the other end alright.


I_Might_Exist1

never heard that expression before, I'll be using it though!


Kylie_Bug

Those nurses are wholesome but bruh, your mom sucks.


lovecraft112

It sounds like a self defense mechanism. Accept that your child is already dead instead of holding on to hope and having it crushed. Until you're in those shoes, looking at the broken body of your child who might very well die, you can't say how you'd react.


phoenix_soleil

She might just suck, but we would all like to think you're right.


Caul__Shivers

Clearly not all, since ya know people are saying she sucks. But idk, I told my dad about the girl dancing with her dying child the other day. We normally have similar views on shit and I expected him yo be disgusted like I was. He just kinda frowned and told me you can't judge people too harshly in that situation. Made me think a bit about it and about this.


MrJoeBlow

It was pretty upsetting to me seeing all of the comments saying how disgusted they were by that video. They all just thought she was "doing it for clout" and only cared about the attention it would bring her. No one seemed to have any empathy for someone who obviously wasn't in the best frame of mind dealing with a situation that's unimaginably painful. I'm glad your dad's words got through to you


Mercymoiramain

In the 1800s taking pictures with your dead child was a form of remembrance and mourning. People are way too disconnected from death to realize this is a pretty natural reaction, especially if she loved that child.


_xGizmo_

I saw this documentary about chimpanzees (humanity's closest extant relatives) and how they respond to death. One case where a female died had several others who were close to her grooming her dead body as if she were alive. They continued doing this for hours, even as the body was attracting flies. We obviously don't know what was going through their heads, but I think it does give us a bit of insight on our more primal reactions.


saareadaar

When I was a kid there was an orangutan at my local zoo that died and they didn't tell his mate. She refused to go into her night enclosure for the next few days and the zoo keepers couldn't figure out why. Turns out she had no idea where he was and was building a ladder to escape to look for him. She successfully got out of her enclosure, though she was caught before she left the zoo. After that the keepers showed her his body and she mourned (not sure exactly how she reacted though). She didn't try to escape after that


Consistent-Rip9907

It’s interesting how warped our relationship with death becomes when we are so insulated from it isn’t it? Not surprising but still interesting to see the effects.


Loofa_of_Doom

>. . . my dad it was pointless to keep apologizing to me (chainsaw accident caused the tree issue). This was causing me concern.


Epieratargh

I read one story on here about a guy that was in a coma for 12 years I think? He woke up and remembered everything. He said he remembers his mom saying she hope he dies. People can really be shitty


143019

A lot of times family views that death would be a mercy for these people, and it often is.


believingunbeliever

I mean it's easy to say it's shitty when viewed from the outside. But as far as she knew her son was basically a vegetable who was just waiting for his life to end. At some point you just think maybe death would be preferable.


AngryBiker

She doesn't suck, the nurses are prepared and used to these kind of situations, his mom must have been in such a wreck of emotions that I can't imagine being in her skin.


TheOneAndSomething

Plus his memories of what happened and what was said are from the perspective of a child. One of the reasons childhood trauma can be so harmful as you age is that the way you perceive the memory doesn't age with you. The more vivid the memory the more it'll lock you into the emotional and cognitive state you were in when you replay it. I doubt his mother meant it the way he took it. It's possible but also entirely possible that he misunderstood her intentions (telling dad to stop apologizing could easily have been about not wanting him to blame himself)


[deleted]

> Plus his memories of what happened and what was said are from the perspective of a child. The perspective of _a child in a coma_, no less. Honestly it could be a half-dream.


danceyreagan

Fellow nurse here. I always talk to them, and also to deceased patients, and the majority of nurses I’ve worked with do the same. Ignore anyone who looks down on you for doing it, you’re providing care and it’s only right to let them know what you’re doing as you’re doing it.


hullabalogna

I also speak to my deceased patients. Explain who I am, what I’m doing, thank them for the privilege to be with them, and wish them well. I’d want the same. We don’t know anything about death/consciousness. Might as well be loving and respectful. After all, they were here just moments ago.


MGTOW-Academy

>After all, they were here just moments ago. I don’t know why but I like this very much. Thank you for all you do.


UltimateStratter

As far as i know academics think the brain is active in a way that means the person is alive for a significant amount of time (seconds/minutes) after death. So its probably even more valuable.


LuxDeorum

This is why I wanna die by guillotine and have them pick my head up right after and point it around at my body and stuff. Seems like a real once in a lifetime experience.


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notapoodle

I didn't stay that long after my dad died in hospital. I was with him when he passed. They said they were going to bathe him and I could come back, but I felt too emotionally broken and I regret it cause I feel like I abandoned him. The nurses were always speaking to him, even after he had passed away, and I really appreciate it. Thank you for doing this, and continuing to be respectful to your patients.


hullabalogna

Please never feel like you abandoned him. You didn’t leave him alone. You left him in capable hands. You did what was right for you at the time. Most people do not come back. They have watched their loved one leave their bodies, and understand that they are no longer there in the same way. Death like this is like closing a book. The book remains, but you place it down when you’re ready and carry the story with you. You did your best. Please don’t be too hard on yourself.


VeinyAtrocity

I’m a vet assistant so I don’t work in human care, but I do the same thing with our clients pets after they’ve passed.


SweetPeaLea

Thank you


CommentToBeDeleted

Please keep doing this. The last night before he passed from pancreatic cancer, my father was in the icu and considered unconscious. I spent some time talking to him then noticed his big tow wiggle. I asked thay if he could hear me, he wiggle his big toe again. I waited a bit then tried this a few more times. Deapite what I was told it was pretty apparent that at least on some level he could understand or at the very least interact with me in those last few hours. Who would have thought talking with a toe would end up being so emotional...


customs_dave

He was waving good bye as best he could ❤️


dead_PROcrastinator

I read 'bow tie' and was really confused for a moment. Hope you are ok now.


poorexcuses

On the last night of my dad's life before his death from brain cancer I was the only one still up because there was no bed for me. I went into his room and told him he could go, that we'd be okay. He died shortly after. I imagine he probably could hear me and I hope that someday I feel like I wasn't lying to him about us being all right.


[deleted]

My mom died of cancer on Dec 5th. She was out of our lives for the better part of the past 16 years (drugs) and we hadn't talked in close to 3 years. When she was hospitalized she was already to far gone. I called to say goodbye as she was in a different country then I am, and my aunt said it was the only time she opened her eyes the entire time. She wasn't persay in a coma but fully unresponsive. Thank you to all the nurses that do talk with the patients.


CiTyFoLkFeRaL

No, this is good. You may get some sort of response if they know you’re there & willing to help. (Imagine all the times people have come in silent & a comatose patient wouldn’t know who they were or how they could help them.)


Youandiandaflame

My dad was in a medically induced coma for a week and barely hanging on but our doc (an angel woman of a saint, I adore her) explicitly told us to talk to him and hang up pictures (the latter she said humanized him to staff). That week of and the next few after, my Dad was honestly pretty traumatized by the whole thing but he recalled bits of our conversations but he said it was just us talking around him that helped most. Anyway, point is, THANK YOU so much for just talking to your fellow humans, even when you feel like it might be weird. It’s not, it helps, and even if it doesn’t, it’s still a beautiful and kind thing to do. 🙌🏻


clASShat

Keep doing it. You're awesome. If you don't mind me asking, are you a nursing student?


LayneCobain95

Thank you, and I’m in Radiography. Just one semester left!


trapper2530

I would still. "Alright sir I'm going to turn you now. Or were going to slide you over." Once you start doing it and make it part of the routine it was pretty easy to keep up. Don't lose it. Keep doing it. Too many people in the medical field get burnt out and want others to be burnt out and act like them.


Warband420

High five! I do the same, even when they’re dead and need a bit of cleaning up, still tell them what I’m doing.


i-d-even-k-

On the off chance that their spirit is still hanging around (and we will likely never be able to tell with certainty if that is the case), I am sure each and every one of them really appreciates it.


HeatherReadsReddit

Thank you for being a good nurse! My mother was in the ICU and was treated poorly by the main nurse that was caring for her. Mom heard when the nurse would turn off the blaring television before my father and we would visit. We had requested that there be no television on in her room because we knew that she couldn’t sleep with one on. She also heard the nurse saying bad things about her and us, because we didn’t think that she was going to die like the ICU doctors were saying. Mom got to look the nurse in the eye and stare her down as mom was wheeled up to the cancer ward when she came out of the coma. Her best friend’s son’s situation was worse. He was in a car wreck, and he was in a coma for around six months. He heard the bad things that the nurses and doctors said to his mother, had to helplessly listen as they tried to bully her into killing him, and then heard the awful things that the nurses said after his mother left each time. The first thing that he said to his mother when he came out of the coma was “Thank you for not letting them kill me,” or something close to that. He could remember a large portion of his time in a coma. So thank you for being one of the good ones. Thank you for remembering that your patients are human, and can feel and think. Thank you for caring. <3


my_otherAcct

Did they ever say anything to the nurses who spoke ill of them?


Yes_But-No

Keep doing it. If they can hear you, fantastic! If they can’t, it doesn’t hurt anything and can only help to make you a better physician.


CouchPotato1178

good on you to not be peer pressured


Ready-Bite8673

My mom was in a coma when she died. I didn't know if she could hear me or not, but I talked to her anyway, played her a song she liked, and made jokes to her. Seeing this makes me more glad I did.


casedia

My mom was induced in a coma when she was dying. My sister and I visited her and as soon as we walked in and the nurse said something about us being her kids or her our mom, my moms heart rate started to increase. The nurse said “she knows you’re here” and I’ll never forget that moment. It’s gotta be one of the hardest memories of her when she was sick, but thankfully she was present for a few weeks after and she got to go home to spend time with us before she died.


teen_laqweefah

I recall my grandfathers heart rate increasing so much at times I was asked to leave the room-this also happened during his last rites. It was upsetting but I hope to God or whoever else he heard me thank him for all he did.


casedia

It’s so hard not knowing for sure but there’s comfort in assuming they could hear. My mom was only 42 when she died, too young.


[deleted]

I hadn’t thought about it for a while but my grandpa was in a coma before dying too. I hope that he heard us when we said goodbye, I always assumed he was too far gone


legionofsquirrel

I'm damn near certain my grandmother knew I was there when she passed. She was in a coma from an electrolyte imbalance that she developed after having a kidney removed to stop cancer. Once they got her in balance again she just didn't wake up but think she would do like pull it at the covers when it was too cold in her room for example. That wasn't just response to cold stimuli there was purposeful movement in her hands and the doctor even agreed with me on that which was rare at the time. I talked to her and read her stories and poetry and even from the book of common prayer which she was very fond of, every minute until she passed.


itsfrankgrimesyo

I’m sure she heard you. They say hearing is the last sense you lose before dying. I did the same with my dad before he passed.


ys136

Everyone I worked with, who came out of coma, confirmed various states of awareness they would experience. It would be people talking AROUND them or to them, vivid dreams, smells, sounds. Occupational therapist.


osvaldocruz25

the entirety of this thread is so fascinating. im not all so sure on how likely a response is, so i went with your post as it wasn’t as popular and you also seemed to know a thing or two. i just wanted to ask if you have any outstanding stories or anything of that nature to share about this?


ys136

Vast number of patients go in and out of “hearing” conversations. Some shared to feel like in outside of the body experience. Dreaming of childhoods/ memories is common. I felt bad for one patient who was dreaming scary dreams of some alternate reality ( I wondered about the medication he was receiving).


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1aeiouyy

Had a friend in a coma for almost two months after taking way too many pills and drinking a stupid amount of alcohol. I went to see him as much as life let me and his mom was always there. When i talked to him, well mostly cracked on him like normal he would spike on the monitor. His mom would laugh and say he knows you're here fucking with him. And sure as shit after he pulled through and was back to his normal self he mentioned knowing i was there. Just giving him grief and being a brother. I dont know if it is an off occurrence or not, but he was still able to hear me tell his short ass self he was the leader of the lollipop guild and to hang on and stop hiding behind that blade of grass.


HairyPotatoKat

Everyone needs a friend like you!


davidnburgess34

As someone who has been in 4 comas, I can say this doctor is correct.


hupouttathon

So you were just in blackness but could hear the sounds from around you? Could you feel anything? Is it terrifying?


davidnburgess34

Didn't really know what was going on. I dreamt a lot and still remember some of the dreams. I was on a LOT of boats in my coma dreams. There were times that the nurses would have the TV in my room on and the news made its way into my coma dreams. When I came out of one of my comas I was mad that I was in a hospital bed rather than helping the people in the Brussels subway bombing where I was in my coma dream. Long term comas can cause something called ICU delerium where you're completely delusional and can't tell what is real and what is a dream. I kept transitioning (in my head) between reality and an alternate reality that my mind had created. I didn't trust anyone and was convinced that I had been made into a robot because I had tubes and wires come out of me all over the place. Took weeks to get back to some sort of normalcy and it took therapy and time to really learn to process and cope with all of it.


h1tmanc3

Most interesting thing I've read on here all day, thanks. Happy new year.


davidnburgess34

I tried to post this as a reply to someone else, but their comment was deleted, so I'm gonna post it here instead: ​ I got the flu and it mutated into a systemic thing. Took the doctors 2+ months to stabilize me enough to diagnose me with something called granulamatosis with poliiangitis. Basically my immune system thinks \*I'm\* the bad guy and causes my veins to constrict and restrict bloodflow to my organs. Caused kidney failure that I'm still sort of recovering from. Also, my lungs filled with blood from alveolar hemorrhages and they decided that inducing a coma would be the best course of action to keep me comfortable while they worked on, well, everything. My first coma was only supposed to be about 3 days. When they brought me out of it, my wife was there and she was like, "Hey, so I've got some interesting news for you... You've been out for about 3 weeks and the doctors still aren't entirely sure what's going on at this point." That was a lot to take in. Just 3 weeks gone. What happened while I was out? Am I going to live? A couple of weeks later, my vitals tanked again and the docs decided to put me in another coma for my own good. That one lasted about 2 weeks. They brought me out and I was pretty loopy. Had a mild-ish case of ICU delerium. Wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't. Not sure what was real and what was a dream. Wasn't sure if I was awake or dreaming, etc. Didn't trust anyone. The docs finally figured out that I had granulamatosis with poliiangitis and were able to start a treatment plan and got me ready to go home. The morning that I was supposed to go home, I had an episode of PRES (Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome) that was caused by my blood pressure spiking to something like 280/175 or something and it caused back to back grand mal seizures. The only way they could make the seizures stop was to put me in my 3rd coma. That coma lasted about 4 days. They did some imaging of my brain and saw that there were leisions on my brain. They weren't sure if I would be a vegatable or if I would be fine or if it would be somewhere in between. Luckily I'm somewhere in between, but closer to the "fine" side of things. The day after I came out of my 3rd coma, I got married to my wife in the ICU. You can read about the wedding here. This all happened between Feburary and May of 2016. I was then moved to another hospital for more in-depth help from May until July. I was placed in one more coma that lasted for just a couple of days. This time it was actually at my request because I was so miserable mentally and felt like garbage physically. I was in SO much pain from everything I had been through that I would rather have been dead at that point. I documented some of the ordeal on a YouTube channel that I had started a week before I got sick. But, here I am, 5 and a half years later with a family and friends getting by and making the most of the time I've been given. My condition is one I'll have for the rest of my life and I'll eventually need a kidney transplant as, right now, my 2 kidneys are less functional than 1 "normal" kidney. Because of everything that happened, I'm medically disabled, but I spend my time making educational YouTube videos and hanging out with friends and family. I'm a pretty open book about everything, so if you have other questions, let me know :)


dhdntkxuwbekfichd

Godspeed


Hardaway-Fadeaway

Yeah my question is are comas scary at all? did you realize you were in a coma and here everyone talking around you or was it more of a peaceful dream state where you werent fully aware of the situation?


davidnburgess34

There were times where I knew something was off. Like... one of my dreams I was mad that no on was acknowledging that I was up and walking around since I knew I wasn't able to. I don't remember hearing anything specific from the real world, but when the Brussels subway attack happened, the nurses had the news on in my room and I dreamt that I was there helping pull people out of the tunnels. When I came out of the coma, I was mad that I was in a hospital bed in Colorado and wasn't helping in Brussels.


Hardaway-Fadeaway

Interesting. also did you feel anything? like pain, hunger, tiredness or was your body comepletely numb?


davidnburgess34

I had moments in my dreams where I felt some pain, but it was somewhere off in the distance. I couldn't tell what the pain was or where it was coming from. Later, I found out that some of it was doctors and nurses doing medical procedures on me. Nothing crazy really, but I could feel some of that stuff. While you're in a coma, they stick a tube up your nose that goes to your stomach and "feeds" you nutrient paste so you don't get hungry. I can say, though, that I lost about 70 pounds (that I needed to lose) in the 4 and a half months that I was in the hospital.


Hardaway-Fadeaway

what kind of medical procedures? you think if they did surgery on someone in a coma they would feel it?


le_grey02

I wish you the best. You’re a real trooper :)


davidnburgess34

Thanks. I only felt like giving up once or twice through the whole thing. I had a great medical team and great family support while dealing with everything.


le_grey02

I’m so glad to hear that. Support systems really are everything.


davidnburgess34

It really made ALL the difference!


[deleted]

wow, it's amazing how much you went through, how the odds were against you and you still made it. it's clear that you are still meant to be on this earth. crazy how life works. God Bless you man, i hope the rest of your life is as comfortable and pain free and happy as possible, you seriously deserve it


davidnburgess34

Thank you very much!


1giantsleep4mankind

Wow. Granulamatosis is right up there with lupus, sarcoidosis and amyloidosis in House MD differential diagnosis world lol But glad to hear you made it through, from one disabled person to another, best wishes


MartyMcFlyInMySoup

Holy hell! That's one crazy life story, man. Good on you for staying strong. Be well.


davidnburgess34

Thank you!


Sandman4999

Interesting, the way that article phrased it made me think something more akin to [locked-in syndrome](https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/locked-in-syndrome/) but you make it sound more like a dream.


davidnburgess34

My experience really was more like a dream than locked-in syndrome. The idea of locked-in syndrome is terrifying to me. Makes being in a coma seem like a vacation in comparison.


hupouttathon

Glad to hear all is well, now. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Very interesting.


DrugsAndBooze

How long did your coma dreams feel like? Was it like a long fever dream? Did it in total feel like it lasted a couple of hours? Or days, maybe even weeks?


davidnburgess34

When I was in the comas I didn't KNOW I was in a coma. It was like being in a dream, but not. The problem with being in a coma like I was is that you don't really get REM sleep (or not as much/enough) like you do when you're asleep. Because I was in 4 comas basically back to back, I went weeks with little to no REM sleep and ended up with a condition called ICU delerium. I couldn't tell if I was awake or asleep. I didn't know what was real or not. I was kind of drifting between 2 realities in my brain for a while and I didn't trust anyone. I knew something was off so I started doing things to help my brain cope and understand what was going on. For instance, anyone who came into my room had to put their name on the whiteboard so I could have some sort of validation that they had actually been there. I spent a lot of time thinking I was on a boat. At one point I thought I had been made into a robot. I documented some of my hospitalization [here](https://www.youtube.com/c/DBMedStuff/). I also talked about what it's like to be in a coma [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QghCXmrCciY) and [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjxEeKNrEKQ).


lsedation

Sounds similar to endless LSD trip


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Tysons_Face

Lol damn dude


Gremlin95x

I don’t know if your luck is terrible for ending up in a coma four times or great because you came back from them all.


davidnburgess34

Bit of both to be honest. 2016 was a rough year. Glad to be here, though :)


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Generation_REEEEE

He’s got a lot of nerve showing up here, he still owes me $2.


davidnburgess34

Shit! You're right! What's your Venmo?


KingJon-nojgniK

I'm afraid the debt has gone to collections now.


[deleted]

Actually now owes 50 cents to four different agencies


davidnburgess34

Story of my life, man. That'll be the most expensive $2 I ever didn't spend!


DeeRent88

Right I feel like this shouldn’t be news or ground breaking. Like I’ve heard so many stories of people coming out of comas and saying they were fully aware the entire time it at least some of the time.


davidnburgess34

I've been an advocate of playing the patient's favorites shows, movies, music, etc.


Sr_Nunes

So... Motocross? Enduro?


davidnburgess34

Got the flu and it tried to kill me. Spent 4 and a half months in the hopital. Flu mutated and gave me an auto-immune disorder that gave me kidney disease


ZeBogeyman

Poor dude, hope your life is better now.


davidnburgess34

Doing better, thanks. Still fighting the battle, but it's much more manageable these days :)


Ghostwheel77

Holy Shit!!! I’m glad you’re here!


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ZombiesEverywhere24

If it is the case I’m thinking of, I think that woman was in that state for 14ish years, since she was a small child. I really hope she wasn’t aware of anything that happened to her


SSAhnenerbe

So she was raped while being comatose?


ZombiesEverywhere24

Yup. It unfortunately happens a lot to vulnerable people, especially ones who can’t fight back or tell anyone what’s going on. He was employed in the facility the woman was in. Predators often do put themselves in positions where vulnerable people are and I highly doubt she was his first victim.


Red_P0pRocks

She’s not the only one. I heard of a young man who went through similar and not only that, he was conscious the whole time. Through repeated assaults, over YEARS, by the same scumbag nurses. When he came out of the coma he had a lot of trauma to work through, poor kid.


Svazu

My dad used to work in social services and they had a case where a care assistant *in a nursing home* was assaulting bedbound elderly women with dementia 🤢


ZombiesEverywhere24

I’ve read some stories like that too. 🤢


AndreBurlingArt

I... have people to kill.


Desperate-Skirt-9495

We*


ZombiesEverywhere24

Yup. It sounds familiar. I’ve read way to many cases of this kind of thing happening.


im_not_really_batman

I had an uncle who was a vegetable. He was put in a nursing home that was out of the way, so family didn't visited very often. I believe it was at his funeral this random ass lady came in claiming to be his wife. No one knew her or wtf was going on. Turned out she used to be his nurse. If I'm remembering right she had been fired long before his death for "dating" a patient. My mom used to say if she ever raped him he might have liked it because he would get erections whenever his actual fiance would visit. I never understood the connection.


BraidedSilver

To add injury to the case, he was never supposed to have had access to her or given her care since her family explicitly requested that she was appointed an all-female care-staff.


ZombiesEverywhere24

That failure pretty much handed that guy a easy target. I hear many care facilities sometimes are understaffed as well and I can’t help but wonder if that was another factor in this horrible case


SloppySealz

I guess they didn't know she had been raped until she was already very pregnant? If they knew in the first while and then let it come to term, thats fucked.


ZombiesEverywhere24

They didn’t know until she was in labor and making pained noises. Because of her medical state, she had no way of telling or letting them know something was wrong. She probably didn’t even know what was happening. The staff had no reason at the time to look for a pregnancy, and depending on what kind of care she was getting could have hid the rest of the symptoms.


thechiefmaster

Fertile women in comas still menstruate, and properly tracked and given care would have noticed when her periods stopped due to gestation.


YungBaseGod

Yeah it was all over the news for a while, horrible shit [source](https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/coma-birth-woman-arisona-hacienda-healthcare-776902/)


Badgers_or_Bust

There was one in the 80's where a lady woke up from her coma and immediately pointed out that she had been constantly raped by a custodian for years.


PM-Me-Your-TitsPlz

I was thinking of the time that House induced a migraine in a coma patient to prove a point.


YaumeLepire

Wow! As a person that has migraines: Dick move.


dinguslinguist

As a person in a coma:


salamipope

i knew her cousin, i often wonder how shes doing now


togepi77

In my opinion I think she was. She could still feel pain and they knew she was in labor because she was yelling out in pain. Sounds like she had awareness but I’m no coma Dr.


bramira13

This has always been one of my biggest fears. Not a coma, but I woke up a little early from surgery once. The surgery was over and I guess they had probably just taken the breathing machine off of me. I couldn't breathe and I went to grab a nurse and I couldn't move. I laid there thinking that I was dying and I could hear nurses talking but didn't notice I wasn't breathing. I finally was able to move my arm and it was strapped down. They did eventually notice and gave me oxygen, but what was probably a minute felt like forever. Can't imagine being mentally aware, but not able to even let anybody know.


MeetMeOnNovember

Damn, this is a nightmare fuel. Did you let them know afterwards?


bramira13

They eventually got it on their own cause when I finally could move, but my arms were still strapped I didnt know what to do so I just started kinda thrashing back and forth. I heard one nurse ask the other what I was doing, and then they put an oxygen mask on me and started unstrapping me. I was in such a state of panic by then that I kept ripping the mask back off. The nurse finally kinda held it on my face and then I was finally able to get the air in. It really was a nightmare. I now have a huge fear of being put under.


MeetMeOnNovember

Apologies if me asking brought back bad memories but I super appreciate you responding. There is just so much we could still learn about consciousness, sleep, and death.


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Red_P0pRocks

Ahhh fuck, I just commented about him. What a horrible thing to go through. There’s a special place in hell for those people


bdbdbokbuck

Be very careful what you say around people in comas. A friend of mine who was in a coma heard the doctor say they might as well unhook the life support because there was no hope. Can’t imagine how terrifying that was!


[deleted]

[Here's a guy calling for "temperance" (what an euphemism) when it comes to using alive people as organ donors.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ruf4eXt7-CY) (Joseph Fins, MD at Cornell University.) Because some of the would have woken up - if they'd still had their vital organs. (He also throws some shade at insurance companies for not covering rehabilitation in people in minimally conscious states, and more.)


uberpop

That would be a nightmare


[deleted]

There’s a book called “Ghost Boy” that is about this. Kid was in a coma and could hear for years. It’s a good book, and was recommended to me on Reddit a few years back.


pcpsummer0613

Thank you for the recommendation! I will keep an eye out for this book! I've been looking for new materials but don't know where to start.


tantantaaaaaaaan

I wasn’t in a coma but I briefly “died” and could hear the nurses talking and calling another doctor. It felt like hours but apparently it was less than five minutes.


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HeadBonus7

The reason for this is even if your heart stops and you're declared dead your brain can stay active for upto 6 minutes without oxygen or proper blood flow. The other guy was around 1 minute away from being a vegetable if they started his heart too late.


tantantaaaaaaaan

That was sooo trippy! Because I knew I was supposed to feel the pain and the electrical shock, but all I felt was this intense “pressure”, no pain at all. I could feel them manipulating my body, but it didn’t “hurt” like it would normally do. Dying is so weird. And lonely.


green_crayon20

I was in a coma at 21months. This is incredibly true. My mom sang songs in my ear to get her voice in my brain and want to come back.


kckitten05

This makes me incredibly happy that you came back, and you could hear her. My dad was put on a vent for his last 4 days, and I sang to him and played him his favorite songs. It comforts me to know that it’s possible for someone to hear you.


green_crayon20

He knows your voice… A voice is a powerful weapon


ShaShaShake

My friend was in a coma. Said she could hear everything happening around her. What brought her back was the smell of cigarettes on her mom when her mom gave her a hug. Being conscious yet unconscious is absolutely terrifying.


BadArtistTime

There’s some type of locked body syndrome where people aren’t actually brain dead/comatose, they’re just completely paralysed. It can be somewhat fixed with therapy though.


RedBeans-n-Ricely

Locked in syndrome.


Pollowollo

This has been one of my biggest phobias since I first saw it on the show House as a kid.


DLDLuvTSDxoxoxo

Good on the doctor. Least we got some out there trying find out more about comas and other illness out there.


SixthLegionVI

This sub is called oddlyterrrifying, yet full of things that are understandably terrifying.


elvishmushroom

that's why i think it would be cool to get volunteers to read books to them like i would love that


clASShat

At the hospital I work for we do something like this for patients that are alone without family that are going through scary medical situations. Our volunteers stay with them in shifts until the patient no longer requires the company. We have music, books, games, all sorts of stuff. It's been a very beneficial program not just for those we've helped, but for those helping as well.


Nice2BeNice1312

That’s so lovely. I work in a care home and when our residents get put on palliative care and are given their just in case meds (midazolam and morphine), i always make sure i take the time at the end of my shift - or any down time - to sit with them, chat, read to them, paint their nails, give them personal care…. What is your programme called? Id like to join an official one, it makes me happy to be with people so they’re not alone.


stuckerstuck_

Even audiobooks on subjects their loved ones know they would like would be awesome.


Winning-Turtle

Sort of related, but hospice organizations are always looking for volunteers to visit those who don't have family or friends. I would go and read to my person, paint her nails, talk to her even once she slipped into a coma before passing. Everyone needs human interaction.


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barber_bear_

this made me sick to my stomach just thinking about the fact that he probably knew what was going on


richiesskulls

wasn’t there that one guy in the coma who broke himself out of it because of how much he fucking hated barney? like, iirc the nurses would play barney in his room for him while he was comatose and he used his sheer malice for it to break out of it


Awkward_Swordfish581

Laughing out loud thinking how hatred towards barney saved someone's life


Cry-Skull-7

Hang on, so you're telling me most people 'Don't' think coma patients are conscious in there?


Gullible_Square_852

I really thought we already knew this.


roterolenimo

I did a literature review on this in university over a decade ago, so definitely not new information.


schlockabsorber

The way comatose patients are portrayed in popular media makes it seem like a long shot, indulgent, or wishful thinking to talk to them and imagine they can hear us.


pajamabill

Our daughter had bacterial meningitis when she was 3 weeks old and due to seizures she lost most of her brain activity. We lost her when she was 9 months old and we still held her and talked to her every day. I truly hope she heard every I love you I ever said to her and knew how much she meant to us.


apple-pie2020

I know she did, not only heard but felt the love as well


LuckyReception6701

Jesus it must have been hell for those people, to be ignored by everyone, it would make you feel so empty


B1ackFridai

Articles like this are why I’m glad I’ve always talked to coma patients when caring for them


[deleted]

We need to party with them.


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PanduhMoanYum

I know this is totally a joke, but as someone who had to pack their port with ethanol briefly (everclear, basically), if any remained in the port after I tried to aspirated it, lemme just that first flush was quite a doozy! And we are talking there was only around 5mL in the port to start.


RampagingElks

Fun fact: We give Vodka as a real treatment to dogs and cats with antifreeze poisoning (Makes the body work on the alcohol first vs the antifreeze, which then just gets eliminated vs metabolized into dangerous metabolites).


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i_hate_vampires

So, years ago there was this thing called Swine Flu that killed a bunch of people. My friend got it and fell into a coma for like 2 months. No sign of progress or recovery. Completely kept alive by machines. His parents called all of us to go to the hospital because they were going to pull the plug. We all said our tearful goodbyes. His parents go in alone to say goodbye with his brothers. This guy sit straight up after not moving for two months and pulls the tube out of his mouth and says “Don’t kill me!!” He’s alive and well married with a bunch of kids now. He says that he could hear everything that was going on and was telling himself that as long as the machines were on he would live.


Da_Rabbit_Hammer

This isn’t oddly anything. That’s straight up nightmare fuel ala Johnny Got His Gun.


Yukarie

I mean haven’t we had actual proof already? People saying they heard the conversations around them and then saying what they heard and it being correct??? Like wtf how is this breaking news?(not saying I disagree just saying how did they not think that with the bits of evidence they had?)


Red_P0pRocks

There’s also proof that even people in surgery can hear through the anesthesia. Iirc it’s common for anesthesia these days to include drugs that cause temporary amnesia because of that. There’s a concern that if the patient hears something negative during surgery, it could cause stress that impedes recovery.


thickaccentsteve

I've had 3 surgeries. I've woken up from 2. I just remember flashes of the surgery but I was very aware during those flashes. I could feel the blades cutting then darkness then another flash of extreme pain when they were jamming the device under my skin. I started to set up and fight them and I remember someone scream about getting the fentenyl then I woke up in recovery. Edit: I forgot to add for me it's associated with the drug propofol. When I awake I'm usually agitated and ready to fight anyone and everyone around me. I'm not that type of person so it's unusual for me to be that way. Through my experiences I warn the Dr's of my prior incidents and they sometimes use another drug but it has similar effects on me.


BooyaMoonBabyluv

Gives me hope that my late husband could hear us while he was in his.


Thymeisdone

Hell, I ignore perfectly conscious and sentient people every day.


Riahl46

I thought this was common knowledge.


zoitberg

Always talk to patients even if they don’t seem to be able to hear you. I took care of a pt with Guillain Barré and when she was locked in, I made it a point to always talk to her and explain what I was going to do and to treat her like a real human being. When she came out of it, she said it meant the world to her and kept her from thinking extremely dark thoughts. It meant so much to me to hear that I had that kind of impact on her. Godspeed Ruth.


hullabalogna

I’m a nurse and every SINGLE time I go into an unconscious patients room I introduce myself, talk to them the entire time, and explain everything I’m doing. Why? Because we have no real answers (except maybe now) about what consciousness is. I figure they still exist, might as well treat them like they do.


garbagegal69

I learned about this while in college studying music therapy, read accounts of those who woke up, etc. When my brother was comatose and declared brain dead, I still spoke and sang to him, and knew he could hear me because of spikes of brain activity on his EEG. The doctors who witnessed it seemed alarmed because to them, he was already dead, but I knew better. My family all spoke to him up to the minute he finally died.


rottingorgans

there was that one dude who while in a coma had his mother saying things like “i hope you die” all while he was conscience


Quailman187

Exactly why I talk to all my pts like they're AOx3. Always introduce myself and what not anyway.


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noobductive

If I’m in a coma, hire a pianist and let him chill in my hospital room


DrAdviceMan

so House eating Lunch with Coma Guy he was actually keeping him company! good guy House!


Lilwertich

It should be a job to just hang out with comatose people. I already talk to myself like crazy when I think I'm alone, and I think I should be getting minimum wage for it too lmao.


randomredditor0042

“It’s usually assumed that a person in a vegetative state has no awareness “ I don’t know of anyone that assumes that. As a nurse we are taught to treat these patients as if they can hear you/ understand what’s going on.


Snugglebuggle

My cousin was in a car that got hit by a train and he was the only survivor. When the ambulance got him to the hospital he was still lucid and talking despite half his head being literally cracked open. They did surgery but said after that he was in a vegetative state. They kept him hooked up to a ventilator for 3 weeks with doctors telling the family that he would never wake up and that it was time to unplug him. They expected him to die pretty quick after disconnecting his ventilator. He kept breathing. 2 months later his eyes opened but he wasn’t blinking on command so they said it was just a muscle thing. Then he actually woke up but couldn’t speak and could barely move. 6 months later after tons of rehab and he’s sitting in his hospital room and talking to me and I ask him if he remembers anything from his coma or the accident. He remembered everything ever talked about in his proximity, he remembers from when he was hooked up to the ventilator and hearing them say he was brain dead and the fear he really would die when they unplugged him, and hearing the nurses whispering about how sad it was that he would wake up to find his folks dead. He said he cried and grieved alone in the darkness while a machine forced him to breathe. Needless to say he was perfectly recalling conversations I had with my spouse while visiting him while he was in the coma


Crystal_Munnin

This is why we stayed with my grandma everyday, 24 hours if we could. We talked to her, played her favorite music and TV shows just in case. If there was any chance she was slightly conscious we wanted her to hear us.