Coma (Medical condition)

A coma is a serious medical condition characterized by severely diminished brain activity. It has nothing to do with sleep. A person in a coma is unconscious and will not respond to voices, other sounds, or any sort of activity going on around them. He or she is still alive, but his or her brain is functioning at its lowest stage of alertness. Comas can be caused by different things, including:

• a severe injury to the head that damages the brain
• seizures
• infections involving the brain
• brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation
• an overdose (taking too much) of medicine or other drugs
• a stroke

When one of these events occurs, it can disrupt brain functioning, sometimes leading to a coma. A person in a coma usually needs to be cared for in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the hospital. Intensive care units provide extra care and attention from doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff. They make sure the person gets fluids, nutrients, and any medicines he or she needs to keep his or her body as healthy as possible. These are sometimes given through an intravenous tube inserted into a vein or through a feeding tube that brings fluids and nutrients directly to the stomach. Sometimes a comatose person is unable to breathe on his own and needs the help of a ventilator, a machine that pumps air into the lungs either through a tracheotomy tube or an intubation tube. The hospital staff also tries to prevent bedsores in someone who is comatose. Bedsores are pressure sores on the body that come from inadequate blood supply caused by prolonged applied pressure in affected areas (e.g. when lying down for long periods of time).