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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.
So one of our readers, Rhonda writes in and she wants to know, what’s the difference between a sedation and a coma after a brain bleed? And that’s a great question to ask because there is a difference.
So let’s just say your loved one has a brain bleed, maybe a hemorrhagic stroke, or after a traumatic brain injury, maybe there is some internal bleeding in the brain. And depending on the treatment, let’s just say you know, the bleed can be evacuated surgically, and hopefully, the brain can be repaired because of that.
Sometimes an intracranial pressure monitor is inserted into the brain. And then often, patients in those situations go into an induced coma to manage the intracranial pressure, to manage brain pressure and then an induced coma is necessary for a few days, until the brain pressures are stable and then patient can be woken up out of the induced coma or out of sedation.
Now, let’s just say that’s the case, you know, your loved one had surgery, the brain bleed has been evacuated, and then they go into an induced coma with an intracranial pressure monitor. And after a few days, the intracranial pressures are stable. And the next step is to wake your loved one up out of an induced coma. And let’s just say they’re not waking up for whatever reason, maybe the brain hasn’t been repaired or maybe, you know, they just need time to wake up. That’s then a natural coma. And you know, without any drugs, it’s not drug-induced. It’s just a natural coma after a brain bleed. So that really is the difference.
And then often the next question that people ask is, how long does it take to wake up? Well, especially after brain injuries, brain bleeds, it can take sometimes days, weeks, sometimes even months, but you shouldn’t give up hope, just because it takes time. But the difference really is between sedation and a coma, after a brain bleed is, sedation is being used to put your loved one in an induced coma. Once the sedation is off, and they’re not waking up, it’s a natural coma and it just might take time.
So that’s my tip for today. This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com. Check out our case studies, or give us a call on one of the numbers on the top of our website at intensivecarehotline.com if you have a loved one in intensive care or send me an email to [email protected].
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This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I’ll talk to you in a few days.