Being In A Long Time Coma

[Nobodiesboy]

Is this true that there are hospitals with units where lots of people are in long time comas?

If so how does someone deal with let's say being in an accident in the 1980's then waking up now where the world has changed?

How can anyone prepare for that? Your mind would find it so hard to understand.

[jno]

this seems to be the only one in Britain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Hospital_for_Neuro-disability

[jim360]

There seem to be very few cases of people falling into long comas and then waking up again -- at least, those who do tend to have some difficulties that make coping with the huge time lost the least of their worries. Usually a coma lasting longer than a few months implies a very low chance of a full recovery, and quite a low chance of even a partial one.

[Peter Pedant]

You are creating a problem and then asking how on EARTH do they cope ?

they dont of course because there are no hospitals full of ventilated near corpses - like in "Coma"
so...
it is NOT true there are hospitals which are full of ....

and so the rest of your question falls

The results ( of a more informed question you didnt ask) is that results of long term ventilation after head unjury are pretty terrible ( at least 1/3 die) and this is because of the brain injury bit and not the lung injury bit

brain is not very good at recovery after severe injury

[Gizmonster]

I remember watching a programme a while ago, about a guy who had been in a long term coma and had woken up.
He had a daughter who was now grown up and she was now roughly the same age as the guy when he went into the coma.
The guy was brain damaged and in his mind he was still the young person .... he could not comprehend that this lady was his daughter and he kept propositioning her .... it was heartbreaking to watch :(

[ummmm]

My friend was in a coma for over two years. On the surface he appeared to be the man he was but he wasn't. He was brain damaged and his short term memory was badly affected. He ended up committing suicide because everyday was too much of a challenge for him.

He was a lovely man.

[horselady]

My friend's husband was in a coma for almost a year following an accident. He didn't know anyone when he came out of it, he learnt to love his family all over again, he said one day "I don't remember M*** at all but I've fallen in love with the person I know now" they had been married for 8 years and had 2 children, it was heartbreaking.

[Cloverjo]

Oh that's very sad, ummmm.

This reminds me of the American woman who was in a long-time coma. There were arguments over whether she should be allowed to die or kept on the machine. The poor woman was plugged in and out depending on the politics of the day.

[murraymints]

a lady in my golf club woke up after nearly 5 years..no problems..simply took up where she had left off.... had a lot of news to catch up on, but was back playing golf in 3 months..

[Cloverjo]

Wow, horselady and minty. The brain is an incredible thing.

[ummmm]

He fell out of the back of a transit van. This was back in the days when lads just climbed in the back with no seats.

The wanted to turn his life support off but his mother refused.

It was really sad.

On a night out he said "I like your jumper" 5 minutes later he said "I like your jumper...Have already said that? I'm sorry for repeating myself"

That's what he couldn't handle. He just felt embarrassed all the time.

[murraymints]

there was no head injury or anything Clover she simply went to sleep kind of thing..hubby found her on the kitchen floor... some kind of viral infection in the brain seems to have been the cause, but apart from building up muscle tone etc again she was fine , and full of life, more so than before...

[Cloverjo]

Brains are amazing, but when they go wrong it's devastating.

[Eleena]

This question takes me back to visiting my brother in hospital when he was at his worst after a diagnosis of limbic encephalitis, leaving him with memory loss. We walked him to & from a smokers area outside. He asked how my son was doing, we told him he was doing fine in Australia. Australia?? How long had he been gone? A few years had passed since he'd left. He broke down, awful awful moment. We told him he'd been there at the send off, no consolation to him, absolutely terrifying to have poignant moments of your life gone from your memory.