Thinking I had acute bronchitis, flu, fever, etc., I was taken to ER by my daughter. Barely breathing I remember ambulance ride to requested hospital breathing with oxygen. Once admitted I have no memory except for Vivid Terrifying Dreams! I later learned I had been placed in ICU with double pneumonia, heart failure, ARDS. I was put into induced coma for weeks while on a ventilator. The dreams I had were so real! The nurses had a plan to kill me, I had such an Aura around me that was a deep pink color as well as hearing conversations that proved to me that I was going to be murdered! To this day I still cannot figure out why I experienced these hallucinations. What drugs are used to induce coma, etc. I am so thankful to be alive and am grateful for the wonderful medical team I had in ICU! Just have such recollection as if this just happened. No one understands.
Terrifying dreams in induced coma: Thinking I had... - ICUsteps
Terrifying dreams in induced coma
I understand what ur going thru. I,too was in a medically induced coma for 3 days( massive heartattack&died). Unlike u I have absolutely no memory of the whole experience. U being in a coma for weeks must be freighting and confusing!
I believe ( as I am not. Dr) that the amount of drugs given in such large amounts has too really mess up ur dreams & any thoughts u may remember! Since I have no memory; which for me is so difficult as I want to remember dying coma etc. I can’t get any answers and nobody understands...
Just want to let u know that I do understand .. this is a very confusing frustrating and scary journey.. keep reaching out..
Thank you for taking time to respond to my post. I can only relate to not remembering anything at all once I was out of ambulance and admitted! I never even realized the severity of my condition. But Thank GOD you survived! I lost my mom & brother from massive heart attack. I will share that my grandmother has massive heart attack and like you they brought her back! The 1st question I asked her was "Gramma, did you see a tunnel of light"? She said no, she didn't remember anything except those paddles used to resesitate her! Promise me you'll never let them do that again, it felt like a sledge hammer! Please take care of yourself and if you need someone to talk to, I'm here! Good night
If you look at the different sedatives used, some are hallucinogenic. It is also the brain in stress trying to rationalise what is going on, the effects of the toxins left in your body by whatever medical conditions you have. The kidneys and liver often aren’t functioning fully whilst on life support, so you are not flushing out toxins & sedatives quickly. We also have had no proper sleep - being sedated is not sleep...alien environment, unpleasant procedures etc etc all combine to send the mind into free fall as it realises it is under attack.
Thank you for your reply. Makes sense since I aspirated too. Then turned into ARDS. I have moved on physically but mentally I seem to be stuck in a vortex almost with flashbacks of same dreams that occurred. I sometimes question my family to see what they remember or if it was a dream! Mostly I get a fair response that I was very ill and nurses said it was body responding to fighting bacteria/infection. I agree with you, alien invasion seems more appropriate! LOL
The rule of thumb is ....if you have a symptom that will not go away....SEEK HELP. Somethings won’t mend on their own.
Totally agree Sepsur. We delayed my seeing the Doctor over the Christmas period as they were busy and the news was telling everyone to "stay away"...……. what a mistake we made I only just survived pneumonia and Sepsis. I was in an induced coma for three weeks and had terrible hallucinations. Even when moved onto ordinary ward I was insisting that my socks were electric and I had to go on military manoeuvres every Sunday. Good job my husband got reassurance from the Doctor that this was normal.
I was the same when in an induced coma I had what I called a "Second life" and with all the drugs they put you on seem to upset the mind. Worst part is when you are not sure if it is real or not. I can still recall what happened to me and it was back in 2008?
Be Well
Dear Mindgames,
All the dreams/nightmares and hallucinations you suffered are sadly very common to ICU patients.. It's caused by Delirium, a mix of drugs given, your organs and brain "failing" as close to death and trying to make sense of it all..It generally fades progressively as the patient gets better but some people can still suffer Post-traumatic disorder afterwards.. It's quite understandable after what you go through in ICU..See your Doctor and maybe try to get refer to a Psychologist or for some CBT which is known to help dealing with the aftermath of it all.
Wishing you all the best in your recovery.
Hi Mindgames -
In December 2012 I began feeling unwell , my wife who was at work at the time phoned our Doctor who diagnosed Sepsis - an Ambulance and our GP came to our house and I was taken to our local hospital - I remember waving to my wife as I was wheeled in and that was when I too was put into an induced coma . My lungs and my only kidney stopped working and my wife was told that if I didn't get taken to an ICU I would die - It was snowing in Inverness so it was decided that I would be flown to Paisley , a six hour drive for my wife . I was on a Life Support Machine and a Dialysis machine for 3 weeks - I came out of the coma after 4 weeks but spent a week talking gibberish . While in a coma I suffered several cardiac arrests , the second arrest lasted quite a long time , several minutes , the Doctors told my wife that should I live I would suffer from brain damage - my wife asked the Doctors if there was any hope - they said that she should prepare the family for my death - they then agreed to insert a temporary pacemaker but warned my wife that the procedure could kill me . I was very very ill . My heart continued to stop but the pacemaker did its job , the Doctors then told my wife that there might come a time when they wouldn't be able to revive me , it was all very bleak and my poor family could only wait to see if I recovered . As you can see I did but it was touch and go for a while .
While my family suffered the worst thing that happened to me were the recurring nightmares - they weren't like normal nightmares - when you have a nightmare you wake up , your heart racing , with this type of dream there's no waking up , it feels like real life , it feels as though it's actually happening to you . In my case I thought I'd been sectioned and taken to a place of recovery but I was kidnapped by this gang who sexually assaulted me whilst being restrained . What was happening in real life was I was taking the tubes out of my mouth and it took 2 Nurses to hold me down while a third replaced the breathing tubes - I was dreaming the tubes were worm like creatures going into me , the ' sexual assault ' must have been a suppository being inserted .
So vivid were my fever dreams that I told the Consultant that I was raped by this gang before contracting sepsis - He told me to report the incident when I got home ! Then the following day another Doctor came to see me and asked me if I could have dreamt all this - The dreams continued to affect me when I came home from hospital - after 12 months past I asked to see a Psychologist but I didn't give the treatment enough time to work and cancelled the appointment .
It's been 5 years now since I came home , I spent a total of 3 months in hospital - I know I'm a very very lucky man and despite not being a religious man I say a little ' Thank You ' each night .
I can still remember the Terror Dreams that I experiened in 2013 vividly - there is more to them than I described here but I didn't want to make my story any longer than it is !
What we have to remember is they were only dreams , the real terrifying thing is how close I came to death , I think about that almost every night .
What I found that helped me the most was writing about it , this place and Sepsis UK helps me get it out of my system , a problem shared and all that .
Ive just read your experience. I had the same back in July 2019. All that you mentioned happened to me as well almost word for word. I am due to return next week to ICU for the 1st time to see what it actually looks like. My memories of the place are horrific and I cant shake the flashbacks. I am grateful to be here above all and hoping to understand it better after the visit. I wish you all the best
Wow, you're allowed to revisit the icu you were treated in? I've been asking for that since I was in icu and on life support for a month back in December 2019 to end of January 2020. Like you due to covid I've not been able to. I may ask if it's now possible. I'm strangely curious as to where I was in those dark and scary days!Good luck with your visit
Talking to my ICU team on the phone , aftercare visits were suspended due to Covid, but they were hoping to restore them once the pandemic was over. Its been 2 years since I was in ICU so whether they will go back to those of us that missed out I dont know.
I'm hoping so, don't really know why, but I feel the need to see where it all happened and still hoping theres a chance of meeting the medical team that saved my life.
Like you I can only remember being wheeled into an ambulance and then nothing until waking from an induced coma ten or eleven days later. I was 31 days in ICU and the entire period was one of strange, terrifying dreams and hallucinations mingled with my times of waking, so that I couldn't distinguish between them. A few months after my release from hospital I wrote down the memories of my dreams as a form of self-healing. I think most people who've been through this kind of experience suffer from PTSD to some extent. I'm more than three years down the line now and the dreams are fading the same way as 'real' memories, but I can still clearly recall many of the episodes.
Hope all goes well for you.
I too was in an induced 11 day medically induced coma. I don’t remember anything
Maybe you already had PTSD
I don't understand "nobody understands" Why not? Why are post ICU, induced coma survivors not told why they experienced such vivid dreams, paranoia, fear of being murdered, time dilation, dimensional slippage, profound encounters with 'angels' 'demons', even God, etc, when the answer is so simple?? The drugs used to induce coma are all powerful psychedelics, ketamine, fentanyl, propofol, diamorphine, etc., etc., the list goes on. Basically you were, and maybe still are, tripping. Flashbacks and opiate triggered dreams and nightmares are commonly reported by coma survivors so why are they not appropriately informed and counselled by those that administered the drugs? Any casual or recreational psycho active drug user, LSD, DMT, etc., would recognise and identify your experience and symptoms in a moment so why are medics and clinicians so reluctant to inform and educate coma survivors? If you ever find out let me know. I don't.
Not true. Has nothing to do with drugs. I can do this dream thing from my own bed without being in a coma. And no drugs. I also have CPTSD so there is a link to there somewhere. The PTSD has some involvement
It might be both...I don't have PTSD, well don't think so but the dreams in a coma goes on for days . I don't and never had them other than in a coma. In a normal dream you wake up and you realise you have dreamt, in a coma that dream just goes on and on. Don't know if time is relative in a dream? but i've never had those extended dreams. It's as if there is just not enough time in a normal dream to have all that detail and time elapsed. When a dream is finished a new one started while I was in hospital. Some nice.....some not so nice. anyways good luck!!
good point! I wrote down the dreams because there were so many. It was exhausting non stop. What I do find interesting is some information that may prove useful as if I am not supposed to know. I am recovering from a sepsis coma after dying twice. The journey has opened my mind since it seemed I had to negotiate my way back to my body. Yes I did have an outer body experience. The particular dream has to do with the human designer of DNA…
This happened to me and I was negotiating what I would assume to be satan at one point.
Hi I know what your going through I was in a coma for over a week in 2016 with sepsis pneumonia and life threatening asthma it was the worst experience of my life and still is i suffer from ptsd now and it’s just so hard trying to look after 4 kids hope your on the mend soon it does get a bit better if you speak about it more good luck
Thank god i find this site four years out of a coma and still dont no which world im living in had very bad nightmares when i was in coma but still can not find any answer feel like im on my own
Hi, sorry this reply comes to you so late. The response by Comadreams is the "why" - a powerful combination of drugs. My own nightmares were almost exactly as described by Comadreams. Coming up to 6 years later, I can still remember them vividly although now I have to make an effort and they don't come of their own accord. After waking I also felt as if in a dream or a fog for several months. That was something of a blessing as once it wore off I believe PTSD began, although I was never informed about it and didn't find out until a couple of years ago through my own research. I know what it is to feel alone and alienated. I have been to heaven and hell and no-one I know can begin to understand that. I hope reading others' stories here will show you that you are not the only one. 💕
They used propofol to induce my coma. I had a couple terrible nightmares that someone was being held in a lab having terrible medical procedures done on them. I woke up and it was me. The only way I've been able to move on is through the love of God in Jesus Christ.
It’s not a dream it’s a parallel world,I would cook ,shop,eat and taste things that does not happen in dreams,so many things I could not script happened ,I’m not a Hollywood movie director,yet every day ,for 50 days ,I was in a coma I lived a day or night movie that lasted the whole day ,there’s no way I can live another life surrounded by basically a similar world to ours whilst I’m inside of another world,everything happens too fast for me to create it,people coming and going,random unknown people who would pop up later in different places and days ,it’s all to real and random not to be real it’s the only rational solution,quantum physics theorised that we can be in two places at once ,it’s something to do with individual dna .There were some good days but many dark days ,some predicted the future.
Also in a parallel world ,earth time would travel backwards,when I was waking after a coma the clocks in the hospital would tick backwards it was when I was crossing back to earth
cool!! You mentioned some key words
I agree with you. It’s been almost 3 years since my medically induced coma. I’ll never forget the dreams that I now believe was me visiting parallel universes. In quantum mechanics (physics) in order for one thing to be true the opposite must also be true. For example, if good nurses are trying to save your life, somewhere ( another dimension) bad nurses are trying to take your life. I was in a coma for almost a month and the visions would not stop most were the worst experiences possible, but I survived and am now forever changed. I believe that our consciousness creates our reality.
Very late reply but I'm studying coma dreams and comparing to sleep paralysis, lucid dreaming and Astra projection . Just became more consious. I think our deepest fears can play out. That's why I try and live by the spiritual laws that depac chopra writes about. I'm a lucid dreamer. Your dream was an anxiety dream as you was litteraly stuck. I always try to conquer my fears. I had no choice as my dream started with sleep paralysis and I couldn't stop it and every night it would try and take hold until I gave in and accepted it. And realised that when I let go I'd find myself in a dream. And I had to learn how to get around. Plus I'd get exited and wake myself up. I'm now able to dream at will but it's hard work as I need to be either really tired or totally relaxed. I'm also writing a book. Hope this makes sense
Do you know that there is such a thing called Post Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS) It’s related to ptsd and there are support groups on social media. You will find many people have suffered similar and hence struggle to process everything that happened. I am very similar and also almost 4 years ago. I am reasonable okay now mentally, and I hope you are too
I had literally almost the same experience. I went in with flu and acute asthma and they put me in a coma for ten daysI vividly remember the dreams of the doctors plans to kill me and pumping me with street drugs for jokes. I was tied to a chair and forced to watch a strange fight happen, eventually I thought I had escaped and come back and checked myself into the hospital again. It took me months to see sense again and I still don't feel right.
It's normal as while your in the coma you arnt sleeping so your completely sleep deprived, your brain takes in all this information and no rem sleep to process it.When you come back to normality all this data is just stuck there, your brain tries hard to make sence of this, and usually fails.
I am lucky to have weekly therapy from a icu phycologist and have found doing a time line from before admission to leaving hospital rwaly helps put the things in order.
Bad visions are normal and icu delirium is very common. It takes lots of time, but the nightmares and flash backs do get better, just no fast fixes I'm afraid.
I'm a year on and still have a long way to go.
Hope this helps.
Paul
This is exactly me. Terrifying! Double pneumonia and Covid. Only went to the hospital because I fell and broke my back. Didn’t even know I had Covid. Induced for over a week. The nightmares were like being tortured in hell. I could hear voices and knew that they were trying to kill me. I saw pink and blue colors and sparkles at one of the worst parts of it. It was and is so vivid still. When I woke up, I saw things that were not real. That lasted for months. I do know that my husband was given the option to sign a DNR on me. It must have been bad. I really know how you felt. It is a PTSD for me. Glad I found someone who knows. We got this!
6 weeks in an induced coma
10 months after induced coma
Induced coma
