Falling into a coma sounds quite terrifying, but what's really going on?
Despite the medical advances in science, we're still pretty much in the dark when it comes to comas.
Thanks to a vividly illustrated video on YouTube by The Infographics Show, we can understand them a little better.
The first thing to highlight isn't like being asleep.
Advert
Instead, a coma is "various forms of unconsciousness that render a person unable to respond to any external stimuli," the video stated.
They are usually caused by severe trauma like brain injury. Or they can be used as a 'deliberate medical treatment' by doctors to protect the brain by slowing down its activity and metabolism, giving it time to heal.
Now all comas are the same though.
According to the video, a vegetative state means that a person might yawn or make small movements but won’t respond to anything around them.
Meanwhile, in catatonia, the person remains completely still, unable to move or react to anything. These types of patients usually require a machine to breathe or keep the heart pumping.
In the most severe cases like brain death, the individual's brain can only handle basic functions like breathing or swallowing, with no hope of recovery.
So what happens inside the body during a coma?
"When in a coma, your brain shows zero awareness or cognitive processing and is completely unable to respond to outside stimuli," the video explained.
"It is, in effect, as if the brain has been completely turned off or is being rebooted like a computer."
The body will continue to breathe on its own, unless it is in the catatonia state mentioned above.
And that's basically it.
"The brains seems to be unable to communicate between the brain stem and the cerebrum which controls cognitive consciousness through a process called the reticular activating system," the video went on.
Since breathing and our heart beating are so ingrained in our passive nervous system, we can do it unconsciously.
To keep coma patients alive, the video shows that people are fed and hydrated through IVs and may need breathing tubes to keep their airways clear.
There can be complications too.
People in comas can experience muscle atrophy which is a result of not using your muscles for prolonged periods of time.
Here's the good news though, the video points out that most people wake up from comas within 'a few weeks' and 'retain at least some level of their previous mental capacity.'
Advanced medical procedures are vastly accelerating how we understand comas and how we treat them.