Is it possible to wake up from vegetative state?

Any recovery from a vegetative state is unlikely after 1 month if the cause was anything other than a head injury. If the cause was a head injury, recovery is unlikely after 12 months. However, a few people improve over a period of months or years. Rarely, improvement occurs late.


Can a person in vegetative state wake up?

People in this state don't show the usual signs of consciousness, such as being able to speak, respond to commands, move with purpose, or avoid painful stimuli. A person in a vegetative state, however, has many normal physical functions, including heartbeat and breathing. They sleep and wake up in typical patterns.

Can you recover from a permanent vegetative state?

Thus some patients can regain awareness after more than four months in a vegetative state, and, although few reach full independence, most can achieve an improved quality of life within the limitations of their disabilities. The recovery period is prolonged and may continue for several years.


Can someone in a vegetative state move?

VEGETATIVE STATE

They have no awareness of themselves or their environment. The main difference between 'coma' and the 'vegetative state' is that at some point the person's eyes will be open and there will be times when they seem to be 'awake'. They may move parts of their body, but this movement is not voluntary.

What are the chances of recovering from a vegetative state?

Generally, adults have about a 50 percent chance and children a 60 percent chance of recovering consciousness from VS/UWS within the first 6 months in the case of traumatic brain injury. For non-traumatic injuries such as strokes, the recovery rate falls within the first year.


Patients Emerge from Persistent Comas and Vegetative States in Nexus Health Systems Program



Can brain activity come back?

Brain death: Irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem. A person who is brain dead is dead, with no chance of revival.

Can vegetative state hear you?

Other studies have shown that up to 20 percent of patients in various vegetative states can hear and respond on at least some level. But at least some of the responses seen could be dismissed as simple reflexes, or at best akin to someone in a dream state responding to stimuli.

How long do vegetative states last?

Recovery from a vegetative state is unlikely after 1 month if brain damage is nontraumatic and after 12 months if brain damage is traumatic. Even if some recovery occurs after these intervals, most patients are severely disabled.


Do patients feel pain in a vegetative state?

A person diagnosed as being in a vegetative state has an operation without anaesthetic because they cannot feel pain.

Are you self aware in a vegetative state?

Vegetative state

A state in which a person may have some reflexes, including yawning and eye movements, but shows no awareness of themselves or their environment.

What is the longest someone has been in a vegetative state?

Elaine died later that year at the age of 43 years and 357 days, having been in a coma for 37 years and 111 days. Esposito's story was brought back into attention in the late 1990s and early 2000s in the controversy surrounding the case of Terri Schiavo, who was in a persistent vegetative state.


Can you keep someone on life support forever?

Life support can also become a permanent necessity for some people to stay alive. There are many people who have portable ventilators and continue to live a relatively normal life. However, people who are using a life-support device don't always recover.

Are vegetative patients conscious?

Vegetative state patients have suffered serious global brain damage; many fail to regain consciousness at all, and even those who do remain very significantly mentally impaired.

Can the brain repair itself after lack of oxygen?

Without oxygen, brain cells die, and a brain injury can occur. It can happen even when enough blood reaches the brain, such as when you breathe in smoke or carbon monoxide. Treatments can help people who have brain injuries from cerebral hypoxia. But no one can bring back dead brain cells or reverse a brain injury.


Can a person come back from ventilator?

Patients on mechanical ventilation are usually discharged from the intensive care unit to the ward when they can breathe unaided. However, several physical problems may still remain. Although these may not be serious enough to keep the patient in intensive care, if left untreated they could lead to readmission.

Can you come back alive from life support?

Life support replaces or supports a body function that's failing. Your healthcare providers may use life support until your body can resume normal functioning. Life support doesn't mean death. But sometimes your body never regains the ability to function without it.

When do doctors decide to turn off life support?

If there's an agreement that continuing treatment is not in your best interests, treatment can be withdrawn, allowing you to die peacefully. The palliative care team will make sure you're comfortable and do not feel pain or distress.


Has anyone ever recovered from being a vegetable?

Recovery. Most of the people who spoke to us had relatives who remained in a vegetative or minimally conscious state (or died without ever regaining full consciousness). In some cases, though, the patient regained full consciousness.

Why keep someone alive in vegetative state?

In some cases, it may be that the family believe that the patient would have wanted ongoing treatment regardless of their level of consciousness or prognosis. Alternatively, some family members may be hoping for a “miracle” recovery or are simply not yet ready to let go of a loved one.

Is vegetative state worse than coma?

What is a coma? A coma, sometimes also called persistent vegetative state, is a profound or deep state of unconsciousness. Persistent vegetative state is not brain-death. An individual in a state of coma is alive but unable to move or respond to his or her environment.


What is the difference between brain-death and vegetative state?

Brain death is different from a vegetative state

The difference between brain death and a vegetative state (a disorder of consciousness), which can happen after extensive brain damage, is that it's possible to recover from a vegetative state, but brain death is permanent.

Is it painful to remove life support?

It is not painful. Most people go into a deep sleep before dying. Withholding food can be a hard decision. But a person very near death is not going to feel hunger, and feeding them may actually increase their discomfort.

Is life support painful?

In situations where a cure may not be possible, life support may cause suffering and pain, and this may lessen a person's quality of life.


What are the chances of surviving after being put on life support?

Interventions: Extracorporeal life support was utilized in 36 acute respiratory failure adult patients with a variety of diagnoses and an estimated mortality rate of > 90%.

Can you be awake on life support?

Although in the past patients were kept in an induced coma while they were on mechanical ventilation, these days recent research suggests that it's possible to keep patients comfortably awake and alert while they are on mechanical ventilation.