Reaction Paper On Comas

Management of the acutely ill adult is a complex and perplexed procedure. It requires underpinning knowledge of the pathophysiology of the disease currently affecting the patient, as well as ensuring that professionals are equipped to deal with the development of a rapid deterioration. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (2007) explain that patients are sometimes inadequately treated due to staff not acting in a sufficient time manner, and so a systematic assessment of the patient recommended by the Resuscitation Council (2006) should initially be followed (Jevon, 2009).

Brain dead is when a person is in the state that they aren’t alive without the life support provided by the hospital. Causes of severe brain damage that lead to brain death would be experiencing trauma to the brain(car crash, gunshot wound, fall or blow to the brain), cerebrovascular injury(stroke or aneurysm), anoxia(drowning or heart attack), brain tumor, severe illness, and brain infection. This is not a coma or persistent negative state. It is determined in the hospital by one or more physicians not associated with a transplantation team(Finger Lakes Donor Recovery Network,

In this case, the night of January 11, 1983, Nancy Cruzan was driving a car and lost control of her car as she traveled down Elm Road in Jasper County, Missouri. The car overturned, and Nancy Cruzan was discovered lying face down in a ditch without detectable respiratory and cardiac function. Paramedics were able to restore her breathing and heartbeat at the accident site and she was transported to a hospital in an unconscious state. Then neurosurgeon diagnosed her and found that she is having sustained probable cerebral contusions compounded by significant anoxia (lack of oxygen). The Missouri trial court found that permanent brain damage generally results after 6 minutes in an anoxic state and Nancy was in this stage for 12 to 14 minutes.

no vital signs however she was resuscitated. She was in a coma for three weeks and was

Our brain is susceptible to many diseases that disrupt normal function, like the disease known as Grand Mal Seizures. Normally, electrical charges are produced by ions in the brain(sodium, potassium, or calcium) and they are released on a regular basis. When released, nerve cells are able to effectively communicate with each other. When a seizure occurs it's due to this process being disturbed. The Ions are damaged cause chemical imbalances which leads to misfired nerve signals. Grand Mal seizures are characterized by three stages. These stages include the Pre-Ictal stage, the Ictal stage(where the seizure occurs), and the Postictal stage. In the first stage, a patient is likely to see a hallucination or some sort of warning sign before the

In reality, once someone is clinically dead, there is no blood pressure, the heart is asystole, and there is no brain function. Without oxygen, the body’s cells start to die and the bodily systems fail.

There are several factors that led to Mr. B’s diagnosis of brain death and ultimately death. The directive causative factor is lack of oxygen to the brain resulting in brain death. Contributing factors in this adverse event are identified as patient oversedation, staffing shortages, influx of patients in emergency department, arrival of patient in acute respiratory distress, and staff ignoring alarms. The alarm is significant in this scenario because it was ignored and the decreased oxygen

An assessment of the level of consciousness (LOC) should be carried out during the primary survey of all patients, using the ABCDE approach Cole (2009: 28). Any initial or subsequent reduction in the LOC of the patient may be caused by hypoxia; hypovolaemia; head injury; drug or medicine use; hypoglycaemia; hypothermia or alcohol ingestion (Cole, 2009:44).

A coma – also known as a persistent vegetative state- is a very deep state of unconsciousness which will last more than six hours, and in which the person is still very much alive, with normal breathing cycles, but can’t respond to any stimuli, or his/her surrounding environment. This can usually be tested by medics putting the individual through (normally) painful and/or problematic stimulants. The patient is also unable to move, see, hear or speak.

A coma is a prolonged state of unconsciousness which a person is unresponsive to his or her environment. The patient is practically alive but can’t perform any kind of movements including talking in some cases. One major reason for this type of occurrence would be a drastic injury to the brain. This cause can be led by various factors such as increased pressure, bleeding, loss of oxygen, or buildup of toxins. Nobody actually knows if a patient will wake up after a coma or if he/she will take numerous amounts of months or years to do so. It is commonly known that more than 50% of comas are related to head trauma or disturbances in the brain's circulatory system. (Lava2) There are numerous amounts of reasons that can lead to a coma such as a stroke, blood sugar problems, infection, seizures and much more!

There are rules for this process and if you don’t do this right can hurt someone and you don’t want that So what you do is try to wake them up softly if they don’t wake say it again if that time they don’t get someone to call the ambulance then you gently put your hands on his or her chest and barely put pressure on it and do it three times. After that put your ears towards their mouth and see if they are breathing if they are not breathing repeat the same process and if that don’t work its time to give them mouth to mouth. The reason for this process because there might be something in their system that is blocking their pipe. When you do mouth to mouth the air will go through them that’s kind of giving them oxygen so they can breathe and they can last longer so when they ambulance gets there they will be kind of ok so they really don’t have much to worry about if that makes sense. That’s why I think we should be required to learn CPR it would be the best for everyone in my opinion. They say that the survival rate is 40 percent that survive this matter and that’s good but it can be better if we all know how to do it so when we need to do something like this you will be the one to save a beautiful soul and they can live there life

There are treatments for brain hypoxia unless you’re already dead. The treatment must be immediate in order to restore the oxygen flow to the brain.For a mild case caused by mountain climbing,for example,you would return to a lower altitude immediately.For severe cases you need emergency care that will put in a ventilator. Your heart may need support as well you might receive blood products and possibly fluids through an intravenous tube.Seeking immediate treatment will reduce your risk of brain

This is why patients who are in comas or vegetable states live because although they may have no nerve function, their heart beats on.

To others, socializing is very important to life. And for others, communication is the key. The definition of death is "the act or fact of dying, permanent ending of all life in a person, animal, or plant" according to Webster's Dictionary. Mason defines death in terms of "irreversible failure of the cardiopulmonary system or consequently as a permanent state of tissue anoxia." (43). Another definition that should be addressed is the definition of brain death. According to Stedman's Medical Dictionary, brain death is "in the presence of cardiac activity, the permanent loss of cerebral function, manifested clinically by absence of purposive responses to external stimuli, absence of cephalic reflexes, apnea, and an isoelectric electroencephalogram for at least 30 minutes in the absence of hypothermia and poisoning by central nervous system depressants." (142). If the heart is functioning, but the cerebrum is not functioning, the patient can be declared to be brain dead. To determine if the cerebrum is functioning, doctors would analyze the responses of the patient to external stimuli, run an electroencephalogram, check for cephalic reflexes, and check respiration of the patient. Lamb states that the absence of spontaneous respiration and circulation is not a sign of death, which is determined only when the physician is satisfied that the brain has ceased to function (31). Testing for respiration and circulation are simply

UNCONSCIOUSNESS - FIRST AID Unconsciousness is when a person is unable to respond to people and activities. Doctors often call this a coma or being in a comatose state.