In terms of usage, the words brain death, vegetative life and coma can be confused a lot. It is possible to wake up from vegetative state and coma when brain death is not reversible, that is, it is not possible to wake up. You may even come across people who wake up 10 years later, 20 years later. This is because, according to the researchers, it has a little more to do with our brainstem.
The brain stem controls events such as breathing, heartbeat, reflexes, which are necessary for us to live. While the brain stem becomes dysfunctional in brain death, the brain stem continues to function in vegetative life and coma. What makes it wake up is that this build is still working.
Waking up from vegetative life is not that easy!
Scientists studying the brain realized that different parts of the brain have different functions in their research. For example, Broca’s area is an area related to language and speech.
Any trouble experienced in that area can cause a person to have a speech disorder, even if he wakes up from a vegetative state. Or, having problems in the limbic system, which is the emotional area, may cause problems in emotion control.
A few years ago in France, they discovered that stimulating one of these areas of the brain to wake up a patient who had been in a vegetative state for 15 years worked. The area stimulated was the vagus nerve, which connects with brain regions such as the hippocampus and amygdala. The vagus nerve is also thought to regulate the parasympathetic nervous system.
Unfortunately, waking up from a coma, from that long sleep, is not like in the movies!
Trying to wake the patient by stimulating the vagus nerve, the team continued this for 6 months. They noticed that the patient could open their eyes and follow the movements of the people in the room in the first month of stimulation. The patient could not get up and walk as in the movies. In fact, the patient would never be able to walk or speak, perhaps due to severe brain damage.
In another case, it was seen in Germany. This time, a woman in the United Arab Emirates was in a coma for 27 years after her car accident in 1991. During this period, the patient, who was treated in different countries and underwent various operations, found the treatment in Germany. This patient also woke up after years of treatment, saying his son’s name. She started receiving physical therapy and rehabilitation support to be able to walk.
The same psychological conditions can be seen not only in a vegetative state, but also in people who wake up from a long-lasting coma.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is one of the most common psychological disorders in patients waking up from coma. The accident experienced by the person, the fact that everything has changed when he wakes up years later, may cause the symptoms of post-traumatic stress in the person.
Memory problems can also complicate a person’s life after waking up. Sometimes a person can embrace events that never happened as their own memories. Or he can forget the memories that have been lived. He can be stuck in a certain period of time and cannot remember after that.
The inability of the person to use his body actively after waking up can cause depression and anxiety in the person. The inability to perform activities such as walking and speaking, which he used to have, can cause him to feel hopeless about the future.
Social adaptation difficulties are another psychological problem that people who wake up from a vegetative life may experience. Patients may have difficulty getting used to changing environmental conditions and their social environment, and they may feel lonely in this process.
54554
