My dad is on the vent for 2 weeks and trachy on the 3rd week because of COVID. His oxygen and sats are up and down, but they are stable now. He’s had dialysis and filter as his kidney wasn’t functioning well.
They already turned the sedation off and I think this is the second day, he’s not waking up yet. So they did an mri scan to see why. We are just waiting for the results.
He’s had temperature again last night. is this normal for a COVID patient?
Hi there - I’ve written many posts about this...there is a definitive long delay in waking for covid patients. My dad has been in ICU with covid for around 7 weeks on Sunday.
He had a track put in over 3 weeks ago and came off the sedation the next day and ONLY this week has shown signs of slowly waking up (eyes blinking, moving his head when someone talks to him). He isn’t able to have a MRI due to a bit of metal in his head.
But trust me it takes a long long time...longer than usual ICU patients. So keep patient and stay positive xx
That’s is very interesting when you say “there is a definite long delay in waking for Covid patients” - is this your observation or is there specific findings for this? I’m really interested. Please do include links when making emphatic statements - it is important to include medical proof 😀.
It maybe a little premature for definitive studies to prove either way or to draw conclusions about Covid rehabilitation.
It’s very easy to confuse correlation with causation, what I mean is that Covid patients are unconscious for a long time and take a long time to come round - therefore Covid patients all take along time to wake.
Any critical care patient sedated for a long time, can take along time to wake - myself included - it would be really interesting to find out whether Covid patients respond to critical care and the legacies of ICU the same or differently - anyway best wishes to all 😊
Hi,
There isn’t conclusive evidence at the moment as this is obviously a very new illness with no cure. However, after having daily calls with neurologists, consultants and doctors with my dads case (as we were so distraught as to why he wasn’t waking up), we have been told numerous times that they are continuously finding - a delay in waking a very common side effect with Covid patients and they don’t know why as yet. The neurologist even said to us last week, that they confer amongst other doctors from around the world (so that they can all share knowledge on Covid) and this was a common query that kept on occurring.
I too can’t wait to read all the studies and findings in later years from this horrific disease that I hope my dad survives and overcomes.
That’s very interesting - I hope your father continues to improve
Thank you! 🙏🏼
I am in indefinite lockdown on a trial drug for a leukaemia of the immune system. There are thoughts that Instead of being super vulnerable, I may have advantage.
Some of the awful and disgusting effects of the virus is this blood clotting in lungs - well there is thought that ibrutinib ( trial drug) may thin the blood enough to mitigate this. The other complication that patients are suffering from is the body’s response to the virus - there is an phenomena where the immune system goes into overdrive and causes the body to go into shutdown - ironically, I don’t have an immune system to over react. Making me less susceptible to the awful side effects of this virus.
I’m really interested in the studies that will come out of this because these are all unsubstantiated claims and I’m not prepared to be the guinea pig.
Hope you had a good positive day.
Hi Tinaelah
My dad is the same. He has been in ICU for 4 weeks and they turned the sedation off about 6 days ago and apart from slightly opening his eyes a few times there has been no sign of him waking up. The doctors think because his kidneys aren't working it is just taking his body longer to get rid of the sedation. They said the next step is to scan him but they're not at that stage yet. They're confident it's just slow because of the kidneys.
Looking on this site it seems as though this is very common in Covid patients.
Thinking of you and your family
It can take a long time for people to come around after an induced coma. My brother was on a ventilator and dialysis. The advice we were given is the kidneys will be the last thing to recover and that was true. the kidneys help to remove wastes from the body so when they are not functioning correctly combined with sedation and the body fighting illness it’s difficult for an individual to fight all these things. Remain hopeful was the best advice we were given two years ago as a family and it was right. I know it’s very hard but please don’t be disheartened.
My own journey shows that I was more susceptible to infection because I was immune compromised from treatment & recovery from illness, the antivirals & antibiotics stripped what little defence I had, ironically.
I wonder why it takes Covid patients longer to wake up than other ICU patients. Your dad may well be the same and is just needing a while longer to come out of coma.
There won’t be data to support any of this for sometime as it’s very new but I can also say our consultants are discussing this with hospitals around the UK and overseas and this does seem hugely common particularly if they are so critically ill it’s touch and go. I’ve been given a number of reasons - cocktail of sedatives, painkillers etc they are on coupled with the lack of kidney function not processing the drugs out of the system, profound weakness caused by the muscles breaking down to protect the organs when about to fail and the time it will for connectors to rebuild. My husband has been on a ventilator for almost 5 weeks and had a tracheotomy 10 days ago. He has been glazed for the vast majority of the last 10 days and only waking briefly. He cannot move anything but his head and does not appear to focus. Over the last few days they have taken him off the sedation at night (he was fully off in the day) and stopped his morphine. Yesterday he was a bit more awake and when I was able to call the nurse held the phone to his ear and said he was moving his eyes when I was talking and mouthed bye at the end of the call. That’s huge for me. We were getting concerned about brain damage but that recognition means the world. We know it’s going to be incredibly slow process and he is still critical, we have been told years of recovery and probably never to be as he was. But I’ll take that! Cruel and tortuous times for us all x
It took my dad over 2weeks to wake up once off sedation. But one day, I walked in for a visit and he was raising his arm up and that was amazing. Then a little less than a week later, the nurse calls me ecstatic asking if I’m coming today because my dad is on it, joking and laughing with her. They said that we must be a praying family because it was a miracle. He’s still working on his recovery but you can keep the faith that it’ll happen. Just don’t give up no matter how many doctors discourage you. Stay strong.
Hello Ms. tianaelah,
Did your dad ever wake up? My dad is going through the same thing now. He doesn’t have Covid. How long did it take for him to wake up. My dad did MRI yesterday. No flickering as of yet. Just sleeping.
My brother is on day 5 off sedation but he's still not waking up.. Is this common? 
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