Sudden Unexplained Coma

I have been following this thread, and am very happy to see the positive and encouraging developments. Praying for total recovery.
 
Great news. So curious as to what caused all this. But very happy for you and your family. God bless y’all.
 
Wow, scary stuff, but glad that she is heading in a positive direction. It certainly sounds like one of insect borne diseases to me, and some of those can be very difficult to diagnose.
 
What a wonderful update. I'm so happy that she is improving and communicating. Looks very hopeful.
 
You mentioned your SIL is a dynamo - maybe she just needed a nap. Very glad she is coming back on line.
 
calmloki said:
You mentioned your SIL is a dynamo - maybe she just needed a nap. Very glad she is coming back on line.
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I can imagine a late great aunt who would claim she did it as a joke.

Sincerely hope for a root cause.
 
Very happy to hear that your sister is awake and responsive, Miss Molly. Here’s hoping for a full and speedy recovery.
 
Well, still not off the vent. They say she is not awake enough to pull it, although she has been writing notes in between lots of dozing off. The doctor asked her if she had ever had a seizure and she nodded yes, so they called the oldest sister who verified that she had seizures with high fevers until around age 5. Doc says that can put scarring on the brain and come back and give problems later. They are still doing more tests and still playing the waiting game.
 
My Dad had a seizure late in life(84) and never came out of his coma. His was probably due to an overload of morphine.....I'm guessing. He was under a pain control doctor's care for rheumatoid arthritis. The doc had just increased his dosage. Not the same thing by any means but seizures can be tough. Sounds like MM's sister is making good progress. Best wishes for a full recovery.
 
Thanks for the update- this is great news!

As for cause... I'm no doctor but what this reminds me of is a colleague who got mysteriously ill 20+ years ago. All tests were negative and the docs couldn't figure it out and in desperation they put him into a medically-induced coma hoping that slowing everything down would help his body fight off whatever it was. It worked, he made a full recovery and he died recently but was in his 80s by then. calmloki joked that maybe she just needed a nap, but the human body does some amazing things. Maybe it DID shut down in order to fight something off.
 
athena53 said:
...the human body does some amazing things.
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I had a conversation with an ER doc once. He observed that the human body has an amazing ability to heal itself as long as you stay away from events like car accidents and gunshot wounds.
 
Lest I give anyone the wrong impression, she is not sitting up in bed merrily writing notes all day. There were just two short notes this morning. She basically is still out of it. She mostly sleeps. Opens her eyes but they are glassy and unfocused most of the time. She struggles to breathe since they turned down the vent this morning. The respiratory therapist says she's tried hard enough for the day and they are turning the vent back up so she can have some rest. She still has very long way to go, but she has come come so far since Monday. It's still all very positive.
 
Some years ago a neighbor/painter shut down while on a ladder. He went thump and his wife got an ambulance and him alive but without brain activity into a hospital bed. After about 3-4 days the hospital was talking about unplugging him on a Sunday; we went in with his wife on a Friday. She was talking to him a bit and said "OK Tom. Time to get up and go to work". And the monitor for his brain waves spiked. Spooky amazing. By the next day he was actively fighting to get the tubes out of his throat and they had to strap his arms down - kinda a tough rough character. He made a comeback; had some cognitive/memory loss, but he's still him and still ticking and painting houses.

Bodies are pretty amazing.
 
Waking up while intibated is incredibly scary and weird. Being on the tube still while conscious also very weird, as every movement can make you move against it and it's totally unnatural to the patient when they are conscious enough to be aware of it. Of course, it's probably needed until she's well out of the woods and on her way out of ICU. I'm guessing she's on ox as well.

Her body is likely using all of her energy to fight whatever this is, so it's reasonable that she will be otherwise exhausted and out of it.
 
Just found and read this thread. Praising God for her progress! Hope you get answers. If this set of doctors can't answer, I would go to the best hospital possible to get them. Keeping you in my prayers.
 
So glad there is positive progress! Hope she has a full recovery, and you get some answers as to what happened.
 
Off the vent! Was fairly alert this morning but going thru the process of removing the vent has exhausted her so mostly sleeping for the past several hours. Breathing well on her own but has developed pneumonia. Has a horrible headache too.
 
MissMolly said:
Off the vent! Was fairly alert this morning but going thru the process of removing the vent has exhausted her so mostly sleeping for the past several hours. Breathing well on her own but has developed pneumonia. Has a horrible headache too.
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Progress! The pneumonia and headache are definitely unfortunate but hopefully she will recover from both soon. It is such a big relief to hear that she is breathing well on her own, and alert.
 
I'm wondering if botulism is being considered. As a pediatric RN in critical care I saw infant botulism fairly often, but it can occur in adults usually related to home canning of food or some other food related source. Treatment is basically just life support until it clears the system, but that can take awhile.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/botulism/symptoms-causes/syc-20370262

Just a thought. Glad to hear she appears to be making progress.
 
I think she is well on her way to getting well. I was astonished at how much better she appeared when I first arrived this morning. When I first came in, she wiggled her fingers at meet in greeting. If she continues to make the progress she's made in the last 2 days, I think it's possible they may even release her sometime next week.

Today they suctioned her lungs and then removed the vent. This whole process absolutely wasted her, but she did ask if she could go to the bathroom and the nurse helped her. So she actually got out of bed (with lots of support). Her throat and vocal cords are very swollen from the vent so even though she tries to talk you barely hear her. There appears to be no memory impairment or brain damage. As I was talking to my BIL, if he said something wrong or forgot a word, she would correct him :LOL: of course at a whisper. After all that activity she just went back to sleep and never really woke up again.

They are saying it is due to the seizures she had as a child that have come back to haunt her (60 years later). She will have to remain on anti-seizure meds for several months and then they plan to wean her off. She cannot drive as long as she is on these meds (she is not going to be a happy camper when she hears that).


They are culturing the gunk they suctioned from her lungs to find the appropriate antibiotic to treat her pneumonia. She seems to be breathing without struggling, but coughing a lot. Her oxygen levels were up in the high 90's and even up to 100 at times. She even said she was hungry, but she's not allowed to eat yet - not even ice chips.



I appreciate everone's good thoughts and wishes for her recovery. I think she in on the way there.
 
This is really wonderful news! I can imagine that the expectations of death or serious brain damage from the Herpes virus must have been just awful for you and her immediate family, and I'll bet everyone is very thankful to have her awake and with her mind intact.
 
The patient is just under 65, right? Hopefully she has health insurance so her only costs will be the OOP Max of maybe around $6000. I'm sure the total bill will be well into the 6 figures for the insurance company.
 
Wow, just wow! The news keeps getting better and better.

Hope she soon overcomes the vent and pneumonia issues.

The human body is a wondrous thing.

omni
 
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