Waking up from coma

[Kaila24]

Hello, my father was admitted to ICU 4 days ago after being found unconcious on the ground in our driveway. He suffers from copd and subsequently died from lack of oxygen. Thankfully the paramedics were able to restart his heart and take him to the hospital. The biggest concern that doctors have is how much brain damage he may have sustained as the amount of time he was without oxygen is still unknown. He was brought off his sedation yesterday and is breathing on his own with the help of a ventilator but he is still not responding to any pain stimulus. The ct scan they did yesterday showed that he has lost a small amount of grey matter, alot less than they were expecting. Dad's blood pressure and heart rate did rise in response to the pain stimulus but he didn't withdraw his hands at all. His kidneys are functioning well and his heart is strong. He is 69 years old so is it just a matter of time and that we just have to be patient? This waiting is hard. Just wondering if anyone else has been in the same boat.

[Luckyone]

Hi Kaila 24,

I'm sorry to hear about your father, I suffered respiratory arrest while in ICU 6 years ago I had a mucus plug the size of a golf ball break away from my left lung blocking my airway, stopped breathing for 10mins and had 2cardiac arrests while the doctor fought to remove it, I was on a ventilator at the time and in an induced coma and have no recollection of what happened but at the time my wife was told they wouldn't know if I had suffered any brain damage until I came out of the coma. Thankfully I came through it all but discovered at a later date after some cognitive tests that my short term memory and processing speed had been effected, it was a small price to pay for surviving and once I got used to taking life at a slower pace which was very difficult to start with but much better than not surviving.

The human body has an amazing way of repairing it's self so hopefully with father will make a good recovery.

Bill

[Kaila24 in reply to Luckyone]

Thank you for your reply. I am glad to hear that you came out of it. The waiting and the unknown is definitely the worst part.

[Brady1234]

Hi sorry to hear about your dad, I know how your feeling. My dad is 71 he also had a cardiac arrest and they worked on dad for 40 mins!! He was in a coma in icu, then was moved to a high independencey ward in king hospital, to cut a long story short , he had all the test MRI , head scans etc they said he had moderate brain injury, as months went on dad opened his eyes but unfortunately doesn't know us well I don't think so , this happened on the 4th August 2016 only yesterday 8 months later dad was moved to a high dependency home , it's very sad but at the end of the day it's my dad so we will be there for him. There's always hope the days go on it some how gets easier or shall I say you learn to accept it, I have good days and bad days! Keep your chin up xx

[Needgodshelp]

HI my dad been in man made coma idk I feel so alone the doctors said his doing good but I myself don't no why isn't he opening his eyes lord I need a Miracle please keep my father in prayer to wake up