Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related FFQ - Medical Question

A person's in a coma. Do they need to be on oxygen?
Also, if they have internal bleeding, does that require surgery? How do they stop internal bleeding anyhow?
Thanks so much!
-Wanda

Hi Wanda,

Coma is defined as the lacking of (conscious) experiences. If there aren’t other brain damages, all vitally necessary organs will continue to function. So for you question: One can be in a coma but still exhibit spontaneous respiration. That’s probably similar to you sleeping. You don’t stop breathing, although you don’t consciously do it. However, depending how severe/deep the coma is, the internal organs would need mechanical aid. So it is up to you, if your patient in the story needs mechanical aid for respiration or if he can breathe for himself.

You can read more about coma here:
coma

As for the internal bleeding, I think it depends how severe the bleeding is and where in the body the bleeding is. If it is a strong bleeding, say in the abdominal cavity or the brain, you immediately need surgery and the bleeding must be stopped, otherwise you’ll die. I don’t know exactly how they stop it, but I think, this also depends on where the bleeding is. Some bleedings are too severe and you can’t stop them, because your patient is loosing too much blood.

Hope this helps

Ines

As Ines said, there are different levels of coma...and therefore different ways of treating. Based on the patient's own respiratory effort and blood oxygen saturation, that'll determine what kind of assistance (if any) they need to continue breathing. If they're not breathing on their own, obviously they'll need to be intubated and on a ventilator. If they're still breathing on their own, but not maintaining their O2 sats, then they can eiter get supplemental oxygen or they can still be intubated to assist their breathing.

As far as internal bleeding...management depends on the site of bleeding and the amount of bleeding. With head trauma, they'll get a head CT (Cat scan) to see if there is bleeding and what type - if there's bleeding around the brain, they'll do surgery to drain the blood and try to repair the blood vessel; if it's within the brain there's really not a whole lot to do except hope it stops.
Abdominal injury is assessed with ultrasound in the emergency room (in most cases) some hospitals still use the older method of diagnostic peritoneal lavage - squirting water into the abdomen and then sucking it back out to see if there's blood and how much. Depending on the amount of blood, they'll either get a CT to determine the site of bleeding or go immediately to surgery. If it's the spleen, they don't automatically do surgery anymore...depending on the amount of damage, it can sometimes stop on it's own. If the liver or bowel or anything else is suspected to be damaged, they go to the OR.
Chest wounds pretty much guarantee a trip to the OR.

Hope some of that's useful,
Jill