What happens to your body when you're in a coma?

INTRODUCTION

Comas are very different from sleep, despite the fact that the origin of the word comes from the greek word Koma which means deep sleep. However coms are not sleep instead are various forms of unconsciousness makes a person unable to respond to any external stimuli. You literally hurt people who are in coma and they would remain completely  unresponsive.

Comas can occur as a result of serious trauma or as traumatic head injury its believed that its brain's way of shutting down so it can focus on repairing itself.Coma can also caused by a stroke, brain tumor, drug or alcohol abuse, infection.

Most of the time a coma only last a few weeks though, but past this period the patient can enter a state that severely lessens their chance of ever coming back

Types of coma

• Vegetative State: A vegetative state means that a persons body can make physical movements yawns, but has no reaction to actual stimuli.The movements are involuntary.The brain remains shut down and operating only at the most basic levels.

• Catatonia: Catatonia means complete lack of any movements or response of any kind. Often patients in this state requires a machine to breath possibly even pump the heart.

• Stupor : A stupor is technically not a form of a coma but is something referred to as one. Patients have ability to be awakened but only with considerable effort but patients can be fall into a deep unconsciousness.

In a coma your brain shows zero awareness and is completely unable to respond to outside stimuli as if the brain has been completely turned off, or is being rebooted like a computer.Except the most severe cases, the body will continue to breath and the heart will continue to pump, and if you block the airways patients can even cough as the body attempts recover airflow.

In 2013 doctors treating an epileptic man in a coma were puzzled to find brain activity in hippocampus which is a part though to be the centre for emotion, memory and the autonomic nervous system meaning its quite possible that the unconscious person was experiencing memories.

The most common issue facing coma patients is muscle atrophy which comes from simply not using your muscles for prolonged period of time.Bedsores are another serious concern for coma patients these happen on areas of skin that are under pressure from lying in bed, sitting down or wearing a tight cast for a long period of time.

However new research and techniques is improving our knowledge of comas and how to treat them.

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