In December 1999, a nurse was straightening the bed sheets of a patient when she suddenly sat up and exclaimed, "Don't do that!" Although this may not sound unusual, it was pretty surprising to her friends and family -- Patricia White Bull had been in a deep coma for 16 years. Doctors told them that she would never emerge from it.
How can a comatose person emerge after so long? What causes people to fall into comas in the first place? What's the difference between being in a coma and being in a vegetative state? There are a lot of misconceptions and confusion about the state of unconsciousness known as a coma. In this article, you'll learn the physiological processes that trigger a coma, how a real-life coma differs from television depictions and how often people awaken after months or even years of being in a coma.
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The wordcomacomes from the Greek wordkoma, which means "state of sleep." But being in a coma is not the same as beingasleep. You can awaken someone who is asleep by talking to them or touching them. The same is not true for a comatose person -- he is alive and breathing, but so unconscious that he can't respond to anystimuli(such as pain or the sound of a voice) or perform any voluntary actions. Thebrainis still functioning, but at its most basic level. To understand this, we first need to review the parts of the brain and how they work.
