Anyone experienced similar? My husband has been in icu for 4 weeks now. Heart stopped for 10 mins and god gave him back to us after cpr in hospital. He has no brain damage they did ct scan which came up all clear then mri which was also clear. They stopped sedation few days after being admitted to icu but he’s not fully awake. He opens his eyes, reacts to pain, cries when we talk but can’t obey doctors demands such as squeeze my fingers. At some points we feel that he looks deep into our eyes and cries and when we ask him to blink when he could hear us, he does those(sometimes). We even witnessed this toes moving when we visited him. He is chewing the tube in his throat and tried to move his upper body at some points (as if he’s trying to get up) but sometimes he won’t move and just stare at the ceiling. and all of these I mentioned happened slowly day after day (which we believe is clearly progress) but doctors don’t agree much as they think he should be obeying demands. Nobody knows why he doesn’t wake up because he has no brain damage. Another neurologist said that he probably had some sort of trauma when he’s heart stopped and will hopefully wake up fully in time.
And he’s still on strong antibiotics because he’s got a lung infection and has a single lung.
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Some of us refer to normal or whatever normal is! In my case I had heart surgery before Christmas and was in icu and sedated / ventilated for 6-8 weeks. I wouldn’t wake up, whilst there was lot of concern, there was the view that I would wake up when I was good and ready - which is what happened and I came home mid March.
I haven’t got a clue what went on although there were moments when I think I knew what was going on and like you my family recognised “good” signs. My wife just reminded me that when I was awake I wasn’t! I had a trachy, had problems with my swallow, no speech no strength and a tremendous loss of weight which included muscle loss so didn’t have any strength to move my arms etc let alone get up. I had to learn to walk again. I was on antibiotics and it took them some time to find the right ones that suited me.
Finding support was difficult but although not living in the Cheshire area at the beginning of June I joined the support group ICUstepschester who provide (all on zoom) a relative only support group, general support group and on 2 days chair exercises and 2 days chair yoga
All I can say is be patient and whilst you are going through difficult times both of you (underlined) have a long recovery journey
I went through something similar. I caught Pneumonia. Was hospitalized for 3 months with only a 15% chance of surviving. I was intubated and on the Ventilator. I was in a drug induced coma for 3 weeks. Then when i woke up my mechanical Mitral Valve had failed so I had to have my 3rd open heart surgery. Then while i was recovering I caught an Empyema in my lungs which caused my right lung to collapse. So I had to have lung surgery to wash the abcesses with a medicated solution. And to drain the abcesses Via chest tubes. The infection was so contagious that I couldn't leave the hospital till I was done taking my antibiotics. Then I had to learn to walk and talk all over again. Then a year later I lost my spleen in a car accident. I'm a living miracle God is awesome.
My Dad had a cardiac arrest on the 24th June at work. He was in ICU for 2 weeks, he had issue with a chest infection. They decided to put a tracheostomy in as when they were lowering his sedation he was trying to pull his tubes out. When they lowered his sedation at first he showed signs of obeying commands, however he then stopped. He was then moved to the high dependency ward. They sent him for CT scans and tried an MRI but he was too agitated so they only got some general pictures which didn’t show anything. He didn’t show any signs of obeying commands for 2 weeks, they couldn’t find any infection however they gave him antibiotics as is heart was still going quite quick. This lowered heart rate, he started acknowledging us a little. He then got his tracheostomy out. On Wednesday I went and see him and he could have a conversation with me and had memory to the weekend before his arrest. He is confused about some things at the moment, he may have a brain injury of some sort but he seems to be on the right road. Even managing to use his phone unaided to call us.
Everyone is different and is effected differently by the sedation. We have been told a lot of different things by different doctors regarding Dad. I think you have got to take the positive out of the change you’re seeing and hopefully it continues.
thank you for replying Becca. It’s a very tough time and only people going through the same path understand each other. I hope your father has a speedy recovery.
We have no option but the wait and pray for my husband to wake up as they’re telling us there isn’t much to do at this point. I can’t wait for the day he could have a conversation with me again
Well 0608 may I warn you that having a conversation with your husband may not be quite the same or in my case it wasn’t! My personality changed, I get very emotional, my sense of humour is evil and I probably get on my wife’s nerves 🤐 All this isn’t helped by memory loss particularly before going into hospital
My experience is very similar. My partner suffered cardia arrest 8th June. Sedated for 2 weeks but responding to pain tests. MRI was suggested as clear as was CT scan. When they lifted sedation he pulled out his feeding tube twice and had quite awful hallucinations which he remembers very clearly. Upon deciding on a angiogram, they found he needed a triple heart bypass ( not to cause of his cardiac arrest).
Nearly 3 weeks on from his op, he’s doing very well and is currently making his own breakfast even.
We feel very lucky for him being so well based on cardiac arrest stats and possible disabilities after. We also feel very lucky that the heart problems were found as a result!! I can’t thank the NHS enough, so many different departments to thank at two different wonderful hospitals.
I hope this gives other some hope that dark moments can and do pass. Concentrating on recovery, we are very very hopeful and grateful for the future and second chance that won’t be wasted.
My husband, although he’s been of sedation for more than 25+ days, he’s still not responding to us.. not moving around or anything. He does react to pain but can’t make any eye contact with us...
they thought he would take off the tubes so they tied his hands but he never woke up fully...
That’s what I did .. wait and pray . Please don’t give up hope as things can progress very quickly and after being sedated for awhile it can take a while to come round which I am sure they have explained. Cling to any small positives and remember to look after yourself too as it’s very mentally hard work. Have they done any scans? Xx
They did a ct scan of his brain which came out all clear then did a mri scan to make sure and that also came out all clear. But they’re confused as to way he’s still not waking up. He is though taking very strong antibiotics for his lung infection
So you have witnessed cases with no brain damage but still struggling to wake up? Any reason why they don’t actually wake up? And I know everyone is different but how long has it taken for some to wake up?
As everyone has said, it can take different people, different lengths of time to wake up - each person is unique in how their bodies process the sedative used to paralyse you into a coma, for instance. I was comatose for 57 days. It took me eleven days to come around properly & through the fog of delirium / I had hypoactive delirium, by all accounts, this left me appearing to stare vacantly into space - still as anything.
I had the obligatory CT & MRi to check for brain damage, I had had hypoxia & my wife had been warned that if I ever did wake up, I would probably be brain damaged.
Now, I don’t know what brain damage looks like - critical care has definitely changed me that is for sure.
I hope you see more progress with your husband, any small progress is good - coming to from a coma ain’t like the movies - it’s slow & rehab takes immense effort. He will need all your strength & encouragement then. Wishing you both well.
Thanks for the reply. Did it take you 11 days to wake up after they stopped sedation?
I think my husband may have delirium because he stares in to space like you did but he’s not angry or shows any physical response... he moves his eyeballs and wakes up when I call his name but can’t make straight eye contact with me.. although he blinked and closed/opened his eyes when I asked him to do so.. it’s just a very hard time because doctors are saying he should be able to obey our instructions which he doesn’t at the moment... is there anything that actually helped you wake up ?
It was 11 days from when sedation was removed, I believe - you see I am a slightly unreliable witness.
Apparently there are techniques used to orientate patient going through delirium after a coma - these include having familiar voices around you, photographs, your favourite radio station - not everything is possible at present, I know.
There are some factors that influence how long a person remains unresponsive - dialysis or kidney issues - kidneys expel toxins from body including sedatives. Length of sedation, depth of coma - the Glasgow Coma Scale runs from 3 to 15. 3 is the deepest coma.
During this period of time because of the demand on ICU facilities because of Covid - some supplies have run short ( worldwide) ICUs have had to resort to less favourable paralysing agents used to put people in a coma. This means people are taking longer to wake & have a greater susceptibility to delirium. I’ll attach a link to a great delirium pdf. Just scroll through the link - there are many PDF’s you may find useful
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