I would very much like to compare notes with anybody who is researching or writing about the dream states and hallucinations experienced while in induced comas in ICU.
I am now almost 70 years old but in my life and career have been notorious as a risk taker and been frequently told I had a charmed life for some of the crazy stunts I've gotten away with. It's extremely ironic therefor that in June this year I tripped and fell on a short flight of stairs, only about four stairs up, and fractured my neck and spine in multiple places. It's been hard to accept that such a simple tumble could have done the damage that it did.
Despite the misfortune of the accident itself I was extremely fortunate to have been quickly taken to the ICU at Charing Cross Hospital where the skill of the surgeons and medical technicians there probably saved my life and repaired the neck fractures that might have otherwise left me paralysed. God bless and long live our wonderful NHS. I'm happy to report that 18 weeks later I have made an almost complete recovery and am now back at home, I can get up and down the stairs and even drove my own car again, briefly, a few days ago.
Reading other peoples stories in this community it's tempting to go off on topics like the quality of nursing, the difference in attitudes between nurses in ICU and those in the recovery wards, the information about ones condition and prospects, or lack of it, provided by both doctors and nurses, the insane staff rotations and medication cycles that don't allow patients to sleep properly more than four hours at a time, the noise levels and continual beep-beeping of equipment in ICU, the disco-ordination between departments like outreach and physiotherapy and so on and so forth on and on but that's not why I'm writing.
I was in an induced coma for five weeks. The dreams, hallucinations, phantasms, nightmares, whatever you want to call them, were spectacular and so very 'real', in 3D and technicolor, like visiting other worlds, other lives, other dimensions. All that was lacking from ordinary reality was sensation, touch, scent, etc., but there was sound, language (often difficult to understand), speech, background noises all seeming very real.
As it turns out I later discovered that my experience was far from uncommon, in fact it seems to be typical of ICU patients under heavy sedation. The paranoia, the sense of having been abducted and restrained by some agency or other, some report it as aliens, I imagined that I had somehow stumbled into some kind of CIA mind control program. On at least two occasions I thought myself to be already dead and in some twilight realm beyond.
I'm not going to go into detail of the dreams here, I could write a book, but would like, even need, to compare the content and emotion of my hallucinations with other ICU survivors with a view to being able to help partners, relatives and friends understand better what's happening to loved ones currently in ICU or still suffering from the effects of having been in ICU.
David.
akenaten2016dj@gmail.com
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I'm so glad you're all right. It's been nearly two years since I was in ICU two weeks b/c of pneumonia, and six more weeks in the regular hospital, where the hallucinations persisted, although not as fearful. Every organ in my body failed during those eight weeks, though thankfully not at the same time. I've made an almost complete recovery, a little weaker, and my vocal cords are shot b/c of being intubated for so long. My doctors say I'm a "modern day medical miracle". BUT, I can't remember much, and what I think I remember is distorted, I'm told. I don't know, but none of my family and friends will talk to me about it. I wish you would write a book; I'll buy it!
Hi David I can really relate to your post. I spent a month in hospital earlier this year the majority of which I was ventilated in ICU. I was fighting septic shock, multi organ failure, pneumonia and pulmonary emboli and I won! So pleased you had such a good outcome from such a horrific accident.
I suffered from delerium and my dreams, nightmares, hallucinations were extremely vivid. I can recall the majority of them unlike ordinary dreams during sleep. I was convinced I was held hostage at one point and also that I was being taken to the morgue when my bed was moved. My family were told delerium is quite common when your body is under such stress and pumped full of drugs. At the time I was convinced my hallucinations were reality no matter what I was told. I still wonder if some of my experiences were real or a mixture of reality and hallucination.
I unfortunately still have nightmares surrounding my time in ICU but they are nightmares andmost dedefinitely not reality. My family were given a booklet about ICU and within it was mention of delerium etc. The mind is a wonderful thing and I think there is more we do not know than know about its capacity to heal. Our physical and mental health are interlinked so it is not surprising that when we are physically very unwell our mental health and/or abilities are thrown askew.
Hi Lesley-Anne, You could be writing my own experience of my hospital stay 2 and a half years ago now. The dreams and memories often hit me without warning even now and I am afraid to go to sleep most nights as any sleep I do get is so full of these nightmares that I don't get any rest. I think during the month I was in hospital with double pneumonia and multiple organ failure, I 'lived' a whole lifetime (most of it in Australia for some reason!) I am undergoing treatment for PTSD but I'm not sure if this helping or not, re-living the dreams really isn't the most pleasant of experiences and it doesn't seem to lessen the effect they have on me. I don't know what the answer is but trying to explain the feelings to someone who hasn't experienced them (even a therapist) is like trying to explain colours to a blind person!!
Hi Avrack I understand how you feel about your treatment for PTSD. If you are thinking about a frightening experience during the day then you can train your brain to think of something else. If your frightening experience returns in your sleep how do you train your brain to think of something else before you get fully involved in the dream? I spoke to a CPN about possible treatment but she wasn't sure that regular treatment for PTSD like CBT would work or be helpful. I don't know what the answer is and unfortunately if you don't have a restful sleep it affects your wellbeing. In an effort to have a restful sleep I'm trying to be calm and relaxed when I go to bed. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. I have tried lavender oil baths, lavender balm on my temples, chamomile tea and reading.
If any one has dreaming problems try sleeping tablets.I found out last year after i woke up from a 6 week induced coma.That i was still having vivid dreams of me dieing over and over and sacrificing myself for other people. But the sleeping tables help me so much.The basically erase your dreams.So when you wake up you never remember them.Hope this help.
Hi Lesley-Anne, sorry to have taken so long to reply, this site has been difficult to access and the e-mails they sent me set off a storm of Spam Warnings in the mailer ap' I was using. My new e-dress is akenaten2016dj@gmail.com. Nothing here seems to have updated in three months? What I was looking for was some sort of chat group with the immediacy of Facebook, this isn't it.
I'm most curious to compare notes with others who've experienced coma hallucinations or delusions or dreams, whatever we want to call them. The one thing I've found that experiencers have in common is the sense of having been abducted and 'imprisoned'. Who or what they were abducted by varies from person to person, for some it's a secret government agency, for others it's a religious group, in many cases it's aliens. One old man I met in hospital shortly before I was discharged was convinced it was the Japanese in some sort of WW2 scenario, I was able to help him a little by repeating over and over he was safe in hospital, in England, and the nurses meant him no harm. He kept trying to 'escape' but because he couldn't walk he'd fall on the floor and the nurses would have to come, put him back in bed and reattach all his drips and feeds and so forth.
You say that at the time your 'hallucinations' seemed absolutely real, as real as 'reality', as were mine. 3D, technicolor, sharp focus and quite solid. I think that voices from outside, voices from the 'real' world found their way into the soundtrack of my dreams and somehow I rationalized those to fit the dreamworld.
In one episode I had died and was about to be cremated, I was in a clinic of some sort in a foreign country with those blue hospital curtains opening and closing all the time around me, where the 'nurses' all looked alike and could walk up the walls like in an MC Escher drawing. I was hanging in the air like Christ on the cross and beneath me was a boat, a long wooden boat like the Vikings used to have, and blue flames were reaching up but there was no heat. I said, (it seemed I said it aloud), "I can't feel anything.", and a voice from nowhere I thought might have been God said, "Of course not. You're dead." It went dark but then I awoke into another dream back in a hospital bed.
The thing about what we think is reality is what haunts me, that was the shortest episode I can remember but there were many others, equally bizarre, that seemed to last for years. I was actually in the coma for five weeks and for three more weeks unable to distinguish real world from coma dream. The impression that lingers still is that there are parallel dimensions which in certain circumstances, like heavy sedation or deep anesthesia we are able to access or slip into in some way. Did you get that impression?
It seems to me, now that I've had time to research the topic, that few if any doctors, surgeons and especially anestheiologists (sp?) that have never experienced the effects of their own medicine when dealing with post coma patients have little or no idea what they're talking about let alone understand what the patient is going through.
Your thoughts?
Thanks for your kind reply,
Namaste,
David.
Any reply will reach me quicker at akenaten2016dj@gmail.com
Hi David..my brother is still in James hospital Dublin..He had major heart surgery 7 weeks ago. In the last few days he has been moved to side ward just off ICU He had a stroke durning op and also had to have a traceostamoy fitted..poor man has been through so much! While heavily sadated he had very bad hallucinations ..told all the meds were causing this. At the moment he is not on any meds but! the terrors as he calls them are still there! I was in to see him yesterday , wasn't as bad as last week .. much more lucid . .as you can imagine I was delighted . He then asked me for the time..I said are you ok..he looked very upset..then he said... I'm going to be murdered at 3pm! . Mention also that he had ordered a gun for protection as people were shooting at him.It took me a while to settle him and convince him this was not the case . He told me he is finding it difficult to separate what's reality and what's not and he is not on any meds now. .nurses are saying this is all part of recovery . .tough to witness tho..take care all ..tessan
While I was in my coma there was on a hill hundreds of army people sitting facing away from me in combat uniform and today I remember the most was you know the helmet and the skies were red and it was night time so you could see and then there was monster trucks and girls flopping around in mud like fish out of water and then there were these have dodo birds have naked women from the waist up Chase me making me eat their eggs for some reason and even after I was awakened out of my induced coma if I close my eyes I would see it it was like in the most brilliant. HD picture I've ever seen I was scared to death thinking that this is where I'm going to end up and I would tell the nurses and my wife that I was joking on the eggs and I needed help it was crazy very scary
I too had dreams that were so real I can recall them now nearly 5yrs since being in an induced coma. I can go to places & see some object which transports me back to those living dreams. I was later diagnosed with PTSD as they said the trauma of being on ICU had affected me as I had terrible mood swings.
i hallucinated that i had a netted curtain around my bed and an elderly thin woman dressed in black was taking a baby out of a crib, she came and removed my curtain and pushed a black ice lolly into my mouth, what i now think was someone wetting my lips with water, this old woman told me she was taking the baby because Mary the mother of Jesus was too ill to look after him, i knew she was evil and could not get up to save baby Jesus, she told me i was the antichrist, i could not talk i was saying but i am a born again christian, there was no one to help this poor little baby or me for that matter. there was a nurse who came round and i was sure she was watering down my insulin, i tried to tell someone but another nurse came up and told me i could not speak because i,d had an operation on my throat and a trachiotomy . some nurses were not nursed they were aliens as they had silver on their faces and ningas were running round the room in black hoping they would not be seen , i could go on forever but they are the main things, needless to say four years on i now know it was hallucinations but very real at the time.
Intriguing, and inexplicable. I haven't (yet) found any substantial professional study on coma dreams or hallucinations. Because they don't understand it and apparently no professional working in anesthesiology has ever taken their own medicine as research, they dismiss it as delusion or something like that. I've read that Fentanyl is the primary anaesthetic but there are others that maintain the coma state after surgery, or whatever, as you begin to recover.
I was in an induced coma in ICU for five weeks, the dreams were incredible and, as you say, HD, 3D and very 'real' at the time. I was in a prototype airplane made of glass with family and friends on board, something I did made it crash, everybody survived but were cut to pieces by the glass, they were all sewn up like Frankenstein's monster. I was sent to a spinal specialist surgeon in North Korea, (North Korea??), where the hospital was on top of a huge cliff and shaped like a chrome plated beer barrel on it's side. The hospital had been paid for by Barack Obama as a goodwill gesture. (??)
I was in a special articulated bed that could put you in any position they wanted but I couldn't move at all by my own will. The slightest attempt to move set off those beep, beep alarms and they'd come running to check I hadn't moved. There was a security camera on the wall watching me the whole time. And they'd be opening and closing those damned blue curtains all of the time, I've grown to hate that color, sometimes I could see through a window to gardens outside where there were elephants wandering around, the elephants were painted all over with white symbols, like lettering that I couldn't read, and the park was some sort of mating sanctuary for them. I don't think there are any elephants in North Korea.
I had visitors there, family members, who I thought must have just driven from England as if it were just up the road. I think the visits were in real life and my comatose mind just tried to make sense of it. Although I was completely unable to move I was constantly looking for ways to escape. I thought that if I could just get off the bed and make a run for the windows a security guard would shoot me and that would end it. This turned out later to have happened in the real world as I tore out all my pipes and feeds and drips and so on and caused a major panic on the ICU ward, male nurses had to hold me down while they put it all back together.
That was just the start of it, the dreams became more and more bizarre, fairground style roller coaster rides through houses of horror populated by evil Barbie dolls and apparently staffed by guards in Nazi uniforms that ended by being dumped into a railroad box car. All like some psychotic video game. The detail in every scene was fantastic, 3D, technicolor and 360 degree visible… I could write for hours and not tell it all.
After ICU, as I was coming around, I realized/remembered not only had I not been in an air crash but that I hadn't even been on a plane in four years so the whole early part of the phantasms had been just that, hallucination. That helped a lot with the burden of guilt I was feeling. The thing that haunts me though is when I remember the dreams I can't help feeling they weren't just dreams, they seemed so real, it seems, even now, that I'd somehow slipped sideways into other dimensions, parallel dimensions, concurrent timelines, alternative realities and I'm curious to know if other coma survivors got (and still have) a similar impression.
Yes I still remember the dreams 5yrs on. Its always so real the best way I could describe it you live the dream you just have to learn what's real and not.
I've just joined the group and am so glad I did! I was in ICU with necrotising fasciitis, sepsis, organ failure, ventilated etc etc just over 3 years ago. I was given a 2-3% chance of survival and was in an induced coma for two weeks. Coming round from the coma was the most frightening experience of my entire life (I'm 48 now). The paranoia and hallucinations were beyond belief. Reading the replies to your post, although obviously disturbing for those going through it, makes so much sense to me - finally people who I am able to relate to, who understand, who've experienced it themselves. The nightmare happenings affected me more than my physical 8 month recovery but health professionals gave a wry smirk and a nod when I explained what happened and assured me it was quite normal, not to worry. Normal!!? I think not! My very own thoughts, when digesting everything that I went through, immediately turned to the possibility I entered parallel universes as many others have said - so vivid, so emotionally charged. I cannot even begin to explain the nightmare scenarios I experienced in one post, like most others - I could write a book! More research is needed to help healthcare professionals understand what patients are experiencing when they awaken from their 'sleep' and not just sweep it under the carpet 'cause it's 'normal'.
Hi Gwen, sorry, only now spotted your post. i was in a coma for five weeks and the paranoia and hallucinations, as you say, were beyond belief. I too could write a book and probably will one of these days. When they say 'normal' I think they mean something more like 'expected', they encounter similar reports from most people waking from induced coma and since they have no personal experience of having been in that state themselves they push it away, "Don't worry, it's normal."
So far as I've been able to tell in my research to date there are no anesthesiologists that have taken their own medicine. The cocktail of drugs used to induce coma are all powerful hallucinogens. There's some reluctance amongst practitioners to even tell you what they are or which they used. I've listed a few, principally Fentanyl, Phenobarbital, Ketamine and, of course, Morphine, the ultimate universal pain killer. When I mentioned Ketamine to one doctor she practically had a fit, "Ketamine? OMG! They would never use that!" Ketamine has in the past been nicknamed 'elephant tranquilizer' and there's good reason why.
In my experience and my opinion people surfacing from coma are moved far too quickly from ICU to a general ward. The nurses in ICU are fantastic people but their patients are basically asleep and all they have to do is keep an eye on your vital signs, heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, breathing, etc., they have little or no training in post coma psychology and do what most good nurses do, attend to dressings, clear tracheotomy tubing, administer ongoing medication, make you as physically comfortable as they can and so on. As you wake up they simply don't know that you're still half in, half out of a hallucinatory state in which, although you are somewhat cognisant and attempting to speak, the things you say make no sense to them, patients quite often seem afraid, distrustful or suspicious of them, that's the paranoia part. ICU nurses, although they must have experienced it many times before, are not equipped or trained to respond to the patient appropriately and in the general ward the nurses know even less and will sometimes respond with hostility or rejection. "Oh well, if you're going to be rude when I'm trying to help I'll come back later." There's a lot more I could say about nursing standards in general.
Regarding the hallucinations it's much too deep stuff to get into here, everybody has different dreams. I think the imagery that clothes the dreams is drawn largely from memories, including memories of TV and movies, that get all plastered together like a moving jigsaw puzzle and the brain attempts to organize and make sense of them but fails. The emotions that go along with them, fear, guilt, shame, etc., are just as fragmented and inexplicable. If you want to discuss the actual content of the nightmares, what they are, where they come from, feel free to write to me, akenaten2016dj@gmail.com.
The thing that caught my attention in your post was you said, "...my very own thoughts, when digesting everything that I went through, immediately turned to the possibility I entered parallel universes as many others have said..." Many others have said that and so did I and I think it's an indicator of high intelligence in those that do. That said you can't discuss 'parallel universes' with a doctor who has never been there. It moves into the realm of the paranormal and only trained psychologists will take you seriously.
So it would seem that the thoughts and experiences in a coma are not all yours/ours but are coming from elsewhere in the multiverse. Is it just the drugs or there actually other realities besides ours that the drugs open doors into? I've been reading about people experimenting with a substance called Ayahuasca, it comes from somewhere deep in the Amazonian jungle and is used traditionally by tribal shaman to do exactly that, contact other dimensions. An author you may already have come across named Graham Hancock has done extensive research and taken several Ayahuasca trips himself. You'll find his many books easily on line and some of his lectures on You Tube.
I'll leave it there and wish you well in your continued recovery,
Hi all! My Dad is currently in the ICU (5 weeks and 2 days so far). He's no longer on propofol, and no longer on a fentanyl drip but he still gets fentanyl every 4 hours; and he's on Seroquel, precedex, and klonopin. The only drip is precedex. He's intubated via trach.
Anyway, is there anything I can say or do to help him with his state of mind? It terrifies me that he's probably having such scary hallucinations. From your experiences do you think there is something I should talk about with him, should I play his favorite music, should I keep repeating he is safe? When he was on propofol, it was like he couldn't see. I would have my face directly in front of his and even though his eyes were open, it was like he couldn't see. Now that he's on other stuff, it seems like he does recognize me and my family. His facial expression changes when he looks at me. Honestly he looks terrified. He moves his head back and forth like he's trying to say 'NO'. He doesn't follow commands, won't blink if you ask him to etc.
Anyway, if there is anything you can tell me to do to help him, I will do it!
Hi Pete'sDaughter. I just joined but haven't yet posted about my own coma experience.... I wanted to go ahead and reply to you first. I know your post is about 3 months old so I hope your father is better by now. But in case he's not, here are my thoughts on how you can help him.
First of all, the fact that you care enough to obviously be researching this stuff and asking how to help him is awesome. Most people I don't even think do that.
I assume you're dad is in an induced coma instead of a "natural" one? Because I've heard people in natural comas can experience things differently than induced-coma patients. I was in an induced coma, and the first thing I want to emphasize is that coma patients (at least INDUCED coma patients) can hear and see (if their eyes are open. They didn't tape my eyes down, and in a completely relaxed state when they don't tape down your eyes they are slightly open. And the brain nevers stops processing (or trying to process) input. I could hear and could see anyone that crossed my visual field thru my lashes. But my brain was going haywire and the glucose and oxygen my brain had been deprived of, plus being given propofol, didn't help. My brain didn't know how to interpret the sights and sounds.... so I guess it filled in the gaps with some strangevand scary as hell stuff. So it would probably have helped if the people around me talked to me and explained why I felt like I was suffocating and that I was in the hospital and safe. If your dad is still in a coma then hold his hand and gently rub his arm and talk to him as if he can hear everything..... because he probably can. His brain probably won't be able to understand what is going on so give him as much GOOD information as possible because anything negative could get swept up in the "coma wheel" and turn into horrifying hallucinations and delusions. I think that would have made a world of difference for me instead of my brain trying to put together a screwy jigsaw puzzle but it couldn't so it filled in the gaps. Best wishes for you and your father.
Thank you HeatherLeigh75 for responding to me. Unfortunately my Dad wasn't able to get off the ventilator or regain consciousness; he passed away July 9th. Your post makes me feel good about how I spoke to him while he was in the induced coma. I did try to explain why he was there and reassured him that he (and the family) were safe. We all told him how much we loved him and thanked him. It's reassuring to think he heard us.
Thanks again for your post and please share your story because it definitely will help people.
I just woke from a dream that reminded me of my induced coma experience. Nothing I'd ever want to relive! But....decided to look up other people's experience when I found yours. Finally someone who understands! My coma dreams were a constant shifting of scenarios all with the same mission, my survival. I was either running from someone or something trying to kill me or trying to escape somewhere.
Each "story" was based ,either with characters or scene, on TV or movies I had seen, and included people I know. For instance one was set in AHS asylum, I needed to escape and would plead with my family to no avail. They had me. Another was like the hills have eyes where I ran from trailer to trailer trying to escape my death.
They were repetitive and never ending. I have discussed the dreams with others but have wondered to myself if I was actually in my own personal hell!
Being able to sit down and hear from others who have experienced these dreams would be intriguing indeed.
I would love to talk to you. I was in a coma and what I call purgatory while I was under a drug induced coma for 12 days after being the victim of a drunk driver on my 31st in 2016. I'm now in medical books . I've been looking to talk to someone whom was in a drug induced coma to compare notes with and my mom sent me this link.
I was in an drug induced coma for 1 week and whilst, as far as I have been told, it usually takes a day or two to come out of the coma, it took me a week or so. I cannot say whether it was during the coma or whilst coming out of it, however, I had the most real nightmares. Two dreams were not frightening and seem to have been related to what was happening around me, ie my mother and sister visited me which I do not remember but dreamt that I had been in a car with them and that my mother looked very pretty (she is in fact 89 and not very mobile). Also, (I was in King's College Hospital which is on Denmark Hill) that there was a train station stop behind a curtain in my kitchen linked to Denmark Hill Station; I was convinced by this and told a friend who regularly visited that this was real. Apart from those 2 dreams the rest were horrific nightmares. One where I was being kept in a dark cellar, wearing no clothes with only a dirty bare mattress. I was standing on this mattress when a young woman came up to me saying, "you don't like pain do you?" She was holding a thick needle approx 9" long and said she was going to sew my arm to my side. I was on life support and had various tubes and drips which were constantly changed from one position to another, also a tracheostomy as I had developed a chest infection.
I also invented an entire family and their freinds, a completely weird and duplicitous set of people who presented themselves as middle class theatre types (writers and actors) but who were actually deeply into drug taking and I was never sure whether what they said was true or if it was a charade. They were hugely manipulative of me and other people. They took me to a cafe where strange things were going on and several months after leaving hospital I walked up the road where I believed this cafe to be....there was no cafe.
It's the same as waking from a deep sleep wherein you've had a very vivid dream and it may take a few minutes or a few hours (when very young) to realize that it was only a dream. I can only think that the feeling of being trapped comes from ones physical actions being completely taken away by another person, paralysed, which of course in an induced coma they are. And so the mind, the only part of the body still able to react, has to make logical, if completely false, conclusions. Obviously, many of these conclusions are dark given the situation of being put into an unknown place by another person.
I think that the nightmares are manifestations of ones personal fears developed through ones life. For example, my nightmare of the woman with the huge needle; at 2 years old after an accident my finger was sewn with stitches without anaesthetic (we lived in the middle east), of which I have no memory, however I started having seizures every time I cut myself (a bit of a tom boy so this happened often) and even when hearing somebody talking about a medical condition including blood, and hearing of animals being badly hurt. I have now grown out of this, apart at the cinema where the situation is too enveloping.
Well, that's what I think. Having read through several of the comments on this topic, ie an elderly man convinced of being surrounded by Japanese (my father was in Japanese POW and had bad nightmares), I think the nightmares are all personal fears, hightened by the physical immobility of coma, and therefore in a situation of no escape.
Dream well, live long, and believe in your blessings, no matter how small they may at times seem. There are a lot of very good people in the world. I have, in the past, allowed people of dubious manners to put me down, but am lucky enough to have realised their world is not mine; they can have their own world, for what they may make of it.
I was in a medical induced coma 2 1/2 years ago. I was in the coma for 13 days. I had very vivid dreams. I can remember 5 different dreams none of them were nightmares. For example in one I was walking down a beach I could feel the mist from the ocean as the waves hit the shore it was lined with people throwing leis on the ground I felt the warm sun I remember the palm trees as I walked down the beach. Ive wondered if others experienced beautiful dreams I don't recall ever being scared or afraid.
I have been home now from ICU for 6 days. I had pneumonia and was put in an induced coma for 10 days and was in ICU for a further 4 days. The last few days in ICU and the first days home. I have relised all the events I was remembering never really happened. I had horrible memory's of the nurses were all against me and were all actors. And the feeling I was dying and that feeling of helplessness is something I will never forgot. I am really now mainly struggling with time as in my memories I was sitting up my hole ICU stay and cummincating with everyone in ICU and thought it was July ( its may) it seemed like I was there for months.
I need to thank my amazzzing girlfriend Naomi, she has been a rock and had such a calming effect on me, also for showing me I don't always need to be the big proud man I have always thought I had to be all the time and for showing me these posts which have helped so much Xxxx Love you always x your my superstar xxxxxx
I too was in an induced coma for 2 weeks, due to pneumonia and double lung failure. I underwent ECMO and my child was delivered, via c-section, during this time. I had terrible “nightmares” centered around being held against my will and tortured. The worst part is that I just wanted to see my husband and children again, and was so desperate to do so. It was Hell, and took several months to mostly get over. It’s been over 2 years now, and it’s still fresh in my memory.
I was on ECMO too for 2 weeks. I remember experiencing what you described and trying desperately to get back to my family too. 5 years later the memories of this time are still clear and bother me. But am physically strong and moving on now.... with only a few manageable physical issues remaining. I Am grateful for being with my family now and others like the people on this forum who are willing to share similar stories and help me with these memories. Thanks 😌
David, two years ago, I was 52 years old, and had to have my leg amputated above the knee. Anyway, I was in really bad shape, and doctors decided to put me in medically induced coma. Got me back after 3 weeks. 2nd day upon being brought back, I had a trip that I am being held in The UPS Store, which was used as cover, and they are going to take my body parts to sell them. What scared living daylights out of me, was that I thought, if they got me, street smart guy, what if they grab my 20 yrs old son and do the same to him. So, I decided I was gonna kill myself, so he stops coming to visit. Thought I'll find piece of glass and cut my jugular. Of course after coma, everything atrophied, and I haven't had any strength to do that. I was screaming bloody murder, calling for police. At one moment, I see police at the door and owner who is telling them it's false alarm (again hallucination) I was screaming so loudly, that security person, some jerk, came to my bed, and started twisting my wrist, to subdue me... I am sorry if I described this in too much details, but thought you may wanna know. Glad you recovered and wish you all the best.
David. I am having issues still after 2 years dealing with the hallucinations and visions I had while in ICU. I was placed in induced comas twice because of the pain I was in they say. I don’t remember any of that. I do remember hearing my wife’s voice at times that my mind incorporated into my dreams. Even after the comas I had delusions mixing with reality and I remember those just as clearly as what I experienced while in the comas. I was at the end and Teri Dr.s had told my wife to gather the family 3 times. I had contracted D-Difficile infection 2days after colon surgery and became extremely septic. So I was dealing with blood chemistry being all messed up as well as being in the comas. It really bothered me when I was in the hospital but it continues to bother me to this day. I feel like I’m walking around in a darkish grey that no one else can see. I hope this all goes away someday soon.
Hello David and to you all. I am happy to finally read about people who have faced what I went through.
9 months ago at the age of 28 I unfortunately caught acute pancreatitis which landed me in hospital characterised by the most excruciating, unimaginable pain EVER!!! I got treatment and four days later was discharged and went home just fine. Unfortunately my health kept deteriorating and exactly Seven days later i slipped into a diabetic coma. I was rushed to hospital and straight to ICU with a bad case of diabetes ketoacidosis and multiple organ failure which left me with severe peripheral neuropathy, memory loss, raging anger and type 2 diabetes.
I was completely out whilst in icu. Totally unaware of my surroundings but I could hear the beeping sound even in my dreams. The nightmares were horrific, unimaginable, unexplainable and evil all together. I was clueless of my surroundings and my whereabouts.
In what I believe to be the first two or three days, I had the worst nightmares and I somehow knew that I was dieing and knew I was fighting for my life. My entire body but my brain had shut down, I was literally dead. Doctors said I survived miraculously, everyone was prepared for the worst. The nightmares continued until a heard a loud supernatural kind of voice say I would never die but live a long life.
That was the turning point in my dreams coz I went from nightmares to pure bliss. I started having this vision like dreams and I was a happy man, filled with life and wealth and health with a new look and I felt good about myself. In so many instances I met the older me and he was showing me all my life achievements taking me to different places, meeting people I've never seen before in my entire life. There's just so much to write about. In my dreams both good and evil there was
Character, emotions, i could almost feel the weather as in a Coastal breeze whilst in coastal dreamland and reaction like for example I had options on how to tackle different situations and scenarios.
I too strongly feel like I was in a parallel dimension coz the clarity of these dreams is about 90%, like being in a real movie only better than the latest cameras invented as of yet. It was like a future dimension or something...
However, my biggest concern and what scares me the most today is how some of my nightmares and good dreams are manifesting in reality. I haven't read anything of the sort but I have mixed emotions in regards to this issue. How can I have 6 different and totally non related events occur in just 9 months just as I had seen them occur in my icu dreams?
Are you saying you had seen your future? Perhaps your soul ( energies) travelled through time space so are now in reality happening as that you were shown in icu?
Sometimes we have to accept that we don’t know everything. And science doesn’t always have the answers.
I hope the good things you saw give you comfort. And it does make us all think what our purpose on earth is and what we are led to believe. My husband is in icu coma . I hope he’s having nice dreams rather than nightmares.
I was in a medically induced coma, less than a year ago due to sepsis and consequent kidney failure and my body beginning to shut down. As a result of the hallucinations and the emotions connected with them I suffer from ptsd. I’m also very tired alit of the time. Does anyone have any helpful solutions regarding this?
I had a suburacnoid hemmorage in 2015 an anuriysm ruptured while I was having a endoscopy so was lucky in a way was put in a induced coma was in one for 2 weeks I thought I was crazy so thank God I read these I had horrible visions seen myself in the morgue thought my sister had a stroke and was next to me it all seemed so real to me I'm still having thought s and already had PTSD now have trauma from the coma etc so relieved to read other people experience that is only a fraction of what I seen thought was outside floating around at one stage in the middle of a riot
I was in an induced coma for 13 days while intubated after an asthma attack that ended in respiratory arrest in 2007. I had very vividly colored, intense dreams or hallucinations that I still recall like it was yesterday.
It was weird because although I lost consciousness before getting to the hospital, I was very aware that I was in the hospital, and on life support. But my perception of the doctors, nurses, and what was actually happening was very warped.
The pretty blonde nurse and attractive blonde doctor were having sex right there in the ICU room I was in, and then when they came to talk to me their angelic faces morphed into the faces of demons with wicked smiles . That was terrifying. I could hear soft music that they played songs in a loop, and remembered all the words to two songs that had just come out on the radio while I was in the coma , after I regained consciousness.
This happened in upstate New York.I lived in Nevada, but was visiting my sister for a couple weeks. My daughter was around 7 years old at the time. My mom and brother came from Nevada but didnt bring my daughter and I remember dreaming that I was listening to a John Tesh talk radio show, and he kept making an announcement that I was in the hospital and he was asking for donations to raise the money to fly my daughter there so she could say goodbye before I died. Never was a big fan of John Tesh and have no idea where that came from!
But the most terrifying thing that happened was I could hear two doctors talking about me, and I couldn't speak or move. I heard one say, "She's not going to pull out of this, so we've decided to euthanize her at 5:30. Her family doesn't need to know. Were just going to tell them she died of complications. It's the right thing to do".
I remember trying, wanting to yell out to them that I was going to make it and to please give me more time, but nothing came out.
The first return to consciousness I remember was hearing my dad's voice and slowly focusing in on his face. I couldn't speak because I was still intubated and I was still mostly paralysed from the tranquilizers that were slowly warding off.
Once I realised it was really my dad and I was alive, I remembered what the doctor said about euthanizing me at 5:30. I went into panic mode because I couldn't talk to tell my dad about it so he could stop them. I could move my hand a little bit and kept reaching for the pen in his shirt pocket, but when he gave it to me with a note pad to write, my hand was still to paralysed to write anything. It was so frustrating and I was so scared. When him and my step mom went to leave he must have saw the fear in my eyes, and big tears started rolling down my face. He said, "Do you want me to stay with you? " I just remember feeling a rush of relief because I knew my Daddy wouldn't let them euthanize me as long as he was there.
For two days, my family made sure that I never woke up alone, and one of them was always there, because I would freak out and my heart rate would go up when anyone acted like they were leaving me alone. I was terrified that the doctor would be in to put me to sleep for good.
On the third day they came in and finally removed the breathing tube and I could talk. First thing I said was, "They are going to euthanize me at 5:30. Don't let them do it."
They all kinda got a kick out of that and my dad assured me that that was illegal and was not going to happen. But it had seemed so real, and took a while before I was convinced it was only a dream.
I also told the doctors that I thought something was wrong with my eye because my vision was weird. After further examination, they discovered I had suffered ischemic optical neuropathy which probably happened while they were attempting to recessitate me. It left me 100% permanently blind in my left eye.
Weird thing though, was the doctor who was in charge of the girl I shared a room with was the same doctor from my dream who had told the other one that they were going to euthanize me! I had an anxiety attack first time he came in to see her. My sister found this intriguing, since I had been in the ICU and unconscious when I dreamed that. That doctor had never been in my room and had nothing to do with my case. Yet he was definitely the one from my dream. How could that be possible ?
I Can't talk about everything i went through.This is the sort version anyway i was in an induced coma for 6 weeks and mental torment was bad.In the dream i was told my pet cat had died. i was devastated and later on the country was empty not alot off people left and then my mother died i felt emotional drained.But when i woke up and not havin those dreams anymore i was relieved that my cat was ok and people were still living in the country and my mum was fine all was good.Untill my cat really died a few months later covid 19 happined(COUNTRY EMPTY) and now my mother is in hospital with something wrong with her.Am so scared that my induced coma dream were some sort off warning or something.Anyway thanks for listening/Reading this i haven't told anyone this.Thanks
I had very similar experience. i had covid 19 as a person in my “dream” trying to control me. saying they want to study us by making us sick and infecting us to gain knowledge. i. was thrown in multiple loops. i had one of those bald headed wakanda girls dragging me out on a stretcher out this fancy looking hotel hospital transporting me to another hospital. almost as i passed their test and finding out everything about me and the human race. i encountered a goddess who gave me to choices.... “Live 100 lives or be the love of my life” quickly i picked be the love of your life. and quickly regretted it and i changed my answer. she was so pissed at me she through me in loops. loop #1 waking up in my hospital bed IV In me and i’m panicking to get off the bed struggle battle and the doctor telling me to calm down everything is alright and i’m still struggling to get out and quickly fatigued. once i pass out i’m in another dream in my dream. on a plane with angels or warriors wearing golden armor taking me to their golden palace up above the clouds. it was so beautiful everything was gold and it was like egyptian based. their talking about me like if i wasn’t in the room with chains on and not bleeding out to death. imagine being in a swat wagon in the back chilling drunk the fuck out. that was me in this aircraft next to angels/warriors. they’re saying how stupid i am for changing my answer and how i was the luckiest bastard to be granted those questions... the main reason why they took me to their palace was to fight the king because i challenged him on taking his love of his life (goddess i rejected). so now im being dragged through the Corridors likes and feet grinding against the dirt. surprisingly i’m bleeding through my stomach area. and they are preparing me to fight this huge gladiator in a ancient stadium 🏟. i’m feeling all kinds of feelings scared excitement fear for my soul. and then boom i appear infront of the goddess again and she’s trying to tell me “did you change your mind” and i said no i already have a love of my life” then she tries showing me everything that is ugly like dissecting the humans face from skin to muscle to nerves to bone. trying to terrify me. “this is what you love over me” and i said “yeah” throws me in a another loop but it always starts off with the panicking in my hospital doc telling me to cam down and this time i get tired faster than the first one. then i’m dreaming on this top secret mission from the white house and they’re using covid as a political tool and i’m on tv and i’m being used by the U.S.A that covid is dangerous. remember i told you that covid was using me as a host to learn about the human race they was also using me as a tool for their mission that corresponds with the USA... mind you i’m on a colorless TV. the man in charge is telling me what to do and blow up shit and act like we are getting blown up so the viewers can buy it and support the USA on their stance on covid. brainwashing everyone. i obviously sabotage the US because covid had me already as a spy. i woke up to the gladiator again still fighting and then he hits me hard in the head knocking me out and i’m with this goddess again and we are having sex she resembled this girl i used to have intercourse with and i stopped it in real life because i wasn’t enjoying it anymore. but out of all people this entity used her face and body to seduce me and it felt real but i snapped out of it and said no. the loops kept going in my head while i was in a induced coma for several days. TV was on and it was playing in my head aswell
I was 47 when I was in a Motorcycle accident I remember nothing about it at all the closest I could think was I swore thinking I was not in control of Motorcycle. I remember nothing about it happening or the people who came to my aid, nothing about 1st hospital then being shipped to Critical hospital in Grand Rapids Mi. Even tho I was told I was talking the whole time. I guess that at 1st they thought I wasn't hurt to badly because I didn't complain but then I had started trouble breathing. The 1st hospital did X-RAYS or MRI they had seen I had smashed collarbone & and broken ribs that cut into my rt lung , I guess I was there no longer than 20 min b4 shipping me fast to the other hospital.. My wife had driving past the place I crashed but I had already left. She got the msg on ph she called said she had spoken to me be4 they sent me in for MRI. I had broken 6 ribs , shattered my collarbone, my renal Artery was pulled out of rt kidney, my liver was cut & bruised, I had also fractures in ,y neck, as well as compression & fractures & stress fractures in my back, T5 had ended up 50% compression &10deg. I was put in a Induced Coma, had blood transfusion we had counted aprox 22 bones effected. I remember I had thought I was buried under snow so deep that I couldn't breathe I could here the machines digging trying to reach me.. they had some how gotten a small hole in which a Doc or nurse had been able to get to me they had a A computer or TV but could talk to those above me. There was a reporter talking about the rescue that had been going on... The next thing I remember was several Gothic looking heads above me telling me it was going to be fine the kept repeating it to me. Some how I knew they had been telling me to relax it would be ok but I knew that if I listened to them I was going to die, I seen them as Evil and told them them no just leave me alone no.. I was now realizing I was in a bed with white blanket over my legs. I looked up and I seen a young Inuit girl with shoulder length dark black hair dressed in white fur clothing to my left I seen legs and heard her speaking I believe or remember I had thought of Grandma when I looked up at the young girl she had lite a form of incense she would come to my side moving the smoke over me & my chest.. it would put me out.. this happened over & over again. At some point I realized I was in a round room then at some point I heard loud noise like pipes & what I thought was scuba tanks or some type of tanks. Then I heard Grandma talking to them when I noticed around glass window and I could see the bottom of the ocean... I then was sitting in a room made of stone & rock I seen a shear like curtain that was pulled back I seen my wife & her sister look at me & smiled then the they were gone.. l opened my eyes and sitting on the floor across from me was a figure of a person.. l could smell the same thing as the what the girl had brought over me. This happened many times and be4 long I thought to myself as looking at the person sitting across from me had long hair and then I could tell he was wearing a robe whitish in color tied at the waste, I could barely see his features.. I thought to myself Jesus, Angel.. Jesus Jesus i had been faded in & out during this time. The man never spoke nor move but always was there when I would wake But I had not moved either. Then one he was gone, I heard dogs barking kids screaming, Chickens when I looked to my left I seen stone steps leading to a doorway with no door .. I walked up the stairs went through the doorway I was up on a hill & seen the Children playing with dogs running around with them barking and Chickens out moving around.. I looked further around and I seen steps going down & up hills with stone buildings everywhere I looked, adults in robes scattered about walking...... Then I seen my Sister her Daughter layingin hospital bed next to mine & a baby.. then I looked to my rt as my beautiful wife walked into my hospital room. I had woken up but it was not the 1st time I was told later. I couldn't speak even tho I tried. I had been on a Trek out of my neck... I knew I was in Hosp but nothing else until later. I had been told what happened to me... The pain I was in was nothing I ever had in my life.. I knew I was awake for I know I had been given my life back to my family & to myself I had not said anything to him but I knew it was him he had been watched me and listened to me tho I didn't say a word to him.... I had to stay in hospital for a while longer then home health care... I remember crying & crying my wife would hold me asking me what to do. I went to Physical, Occupation & Speech Therapy's for 6mo... I tried to return to work but 5wks later I new physical & mentality I wasn't ready.. its been 15yrs in July and I have not been to back to work... I still have alot of pain.. I finally realized after failing to keep my job that I did indeed have TBI... I still seldom go anywhere nor do I socialize in person with many people. I do go on a camping vacation with my family & wife's... My accident has brought everyonem closer.. l'm going to be 63 next wk, last year was my 30th Wedding Anniversary. My wife & I had been HS sweethearts for 6yrs we separated for 10yrs ea of us had been married but divorced. She had a daughter, I had joined the Navy after we went our different ways I was a Submarine Sailor and in my 3rd year I met a young woman who had filed for divorce we got pregnant when we went to hospital our daughter was born but I took her back to my parents house at 6days old for her mom was still in hospital. She never left she had died 23days after our daughter was born.... l ended up moving to upstate NY to work her sister got me a job . But I moved back to mi after 9mo because it was not working out her sister had blamed me for her death. Our Daughter was born disabled from what Doctors called a infantile stroke. They waited to long to do a C section & had lack of Oxygen my parents had taken care of her the rest of there lives. Tho we did get her into a home that is shared with others handicapped people.. l ended up moving to Co for about 5 -6yrs had gotten married had a Son she had talked to me to move back to Mi but soon after we separated filed for divorce. A yr or so later I got a call from my now wife that had been my HS love she has stuck with me thro my accident tho I knew she would.. This is my 1st time writing this all down and I will post. Thank you...
After a spontaneous aortic dissection that led to emergency open heart surgery and valve replacement I was in a medically induced coma. My memory was going to an invisible place with spirits floating around. There was a god like presence or powerful brain. I had to play a mind game to reach higher levels. I could then stay there or move up. Once at the top I could choose to die or go back. I figured out there were no rules but I couldn’t let that be known. I must have reached the top because I slowly woke up. I also had many other hallucinations but those I’m sure we’re the medications. This one however I don’t know if it was a dream, drugs, psychological, or spiritual. I still have strange dream that can make me sick to my stomach and very frightened the feeling of that death state I was in. It was not like seeing a night light. It was an invisible place that I inhabited. I can’t find a similar story. I’m )/ and this happened twelve years ago.
Even though the original posting is over 7 years old at the time I responded, I read each and every post in this thread and can relate to most of them. I experienced a non provoked generalized Tonic Clonic seizure in Feb 2023. The seizure was pretty bad...it lasted about 15 minutes and caused me to go into a coma and cause brain inflammation.
Shortly afterwards I was placed into a medically induced coma in order to reduce brain inflammation. I was in this state for about a week and a half. I also was intubated for a month, suffered a brain stem stroke and was aspirating secretions into my lungs which triggered a respiratory bacterial infection. I also needed a feeding tube. for about a month as well.
During the coma like many people in this thread, I experienced numerous 'dreams', hallucinations or events which seemed to last for weeks. My right leg and arm were restrained to my bed because I was constantly 'agitated' and I was constantly trying to get out of the bed. Nurses appeared to be androids with phony smiles and over the top behavior and I attempted to fight them off. Since I had a lot of phlegm in my mouth and throat nurses were constantly inserting a device that would suck the phlegm out. This device appeared to be threatening and that is when I fought the hardest. I remember them squirting a vile tasting liquid into my mouth on occasion that tasted awful. I believe this liquid may have assisted in breaking up the the mucous in my throat.
The weird thing was in my dreams I was mobile and would find myself in many locations but I could not go far because I was always restrained to a bed, chair or in some cases a cage. I remember flights to various location such as military bases, (I was never in the military), other hospitals, a house which was attached to the ICU wing, traveling overseas to work locations...the situations were very surreal and I recall all of them vividly in great detail. In fact I posted them all in my personal journal and right now I recall over 30 events or dreams.
I recall attending my own memorial service and only my wife, 3 daughters and my mother were there. That was was the saddest memory I experienced during these dreams.I was in a bed looking up at them but I don't recall what they said.
I was going in and out of a coma for a period of about three weeks when the sedatives were withdrawn. During this time I recall pulling the feeding tube out of my nose or throat because it was irritating. I don't believe I would have done that if I was fully conscious. When the tube was reinserted in my nose unfortunately I was fully conscious then.
I was asking questions about events that never happened and my family eventually stopped trying to help me sort out the hallucinatory events from real events. These events would sometimes blend seamlessly together and I am just now feeling that I am grounded fully in the real world. I occasionally have weird dreams though and every now and then when I wake up I believe I am in a hospital room for about 5 seconds or so until reality sinks in.
Unfortunately I suffered from Diverticulitis two weeks after discharge from the rehab hospital. I lost quite a bit of blood due to a GI bleed which required two blood transfusions and a two colonoscopies so more sedatives were given and more dreams occurred but not as bad as the first experiences.
In closing this is one of a few environments where I feel that people can relate to this situation. I believe there are many folks here that feel the same way. I have spoken to my PCP, neurologist, family members and they listen but I don't believe they can relate to my experiences. I feel much better now and with the exception of a few minor physical deficits I am progressing nicely but I'm definitely not the same person as I was pre seizure. I'm working again and fortunately I work from home but my employer will not allow me to travel anymore.
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