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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.

So, today’s tip is about a question that we have from a reader, and the reader writes, “My wife has been found in a diabetic coma. She’s been rushed to intensive care and she has been put on a ventilator and has been put into an induced coma. They reversed the diabetic coma, her blood sugars are back to normal. They now stop sedation, but she’s not waking up. Everywhere I read is that once the diabetic coma has been reversed, that people should wake up pretty quickly”.

Now, what a great question to ask and let me explain to you that even though patients have been taken out of the induced coma, sedation has been seized, and so have opiates been seized, it’s not like switching on a light with a switch. It’s more like switching on a light with a dimmer.

Now after a diabetic coma, it might really depend on whether your wife was unconscious for a period of time and she hasn’t been found. So the next step really is for the ICU team to rule out whether there has been a neurological event during the diabetic coma, such as a stroke, any seizures, they should probably do an EEG (Electroencephalograph). They should probably do a CT (Computed Tomography) scan of the brain and rule out any neurological condition. They should probably check your pupils quite frequently to see whether the pupils are equal in size and reactive to light. Because if they’re not equal in size and not reactive to light, that would also potentially suggest that there has been a neurological event.

But also, even if there hasn’t been a neurological event, you got to give it some time because also the kidneys might be impacted after diabetic coma. If there’s some sort of kidney failure or potentially even liver failure, you should ask all those questions because they could potentially impact or delay your wife waking up as well.

But let’s just say again, this is not an issue. It simply means that after a critical illness, your wife simply needs time to wake up because she’s just been very critically ill. And also, some of the sedatives and the opiates might still be hanging around the body, haven’t been excreted by the kidneys, haven’t been metabolized by the liver yet, so it might just take some time. Be patient. As I said, it’s more like switching on the light with a dimmer rather than switching on the light with a switch. So give it some time. Be patient.

There is an article that we published, “How Long Does it Take to Wake up After an Induced Coma? ” I will put a link below this video so you can read that article or watch the video there as well to give you more insights.

That’s my quick tip for today.

If you have a loved one in intensive care, go to intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or simply send us an email to [email protected].

Also, have a look at our membership for families in intensive care at intensivecaresupport.org .

If you need a medical record review for your loved one in intensive care or after intensive care, if you’re worried about medical negligence, please contact us as well.

And, like this video, subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families in intensive care and Intensive Care at Home. Click the notification bell and comment below what you want to see next, or what questions and insights you have from this video.

Thanks for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com, and I will talk to you in a few days.