If you have seen some TV series, it's easy to notice a scene when a character goes into a coma after an accident (most typically a traffic accident). They stay in that stage for maybe a few months or even years without facing any harm. And then, when the time comes, they wake up. As what they do every morning, people wake up from a coma without any awareness of the time they underwent unconsciousness.
Well, we wish that things are that simple. Those TV drama's details convince us that going into a coma is just like going to sleep. The only difference is that the time may be much longer. After people wake up, they feel like they're young and energetic as ever. But, in real life, things are much more complicated. And as usual, what people experience during a coma is quite depressing.
If you have ever wondered what the condition is like, lucky you because we have found some people who can answer your question most accurately. In the Ask Reddit community, we've come across some threads where people described how they fell into this stage and what they remembered. There we found a lot of stories that took us from one surprise to another. It's thought that people sleep safe and sound during a coma, but it turns out that coma survivors have many things to tell.
Lucid dream, fictional world, nightmare; each person reacts to their unconsciousness differently. Some even sound like they enter a supernatural realm where they can interact with souls and other people in the same condition. So bewildering to hear.
Now, do you feel curious to know their stories? Let's scroll down and check out those stories in the list below.
Once I realized that I was still alive, I thought I had been injured fighting in a war and worried that my wife might not know I was still alive. Trying to communicate with the nurses while intubated and drugged was very difficult.
What I learned later from my wife is that she was there the whole time and while I was fighting against the doctors and nurses, I would immediately calm down and cooperate when she held my hand and sang to me. It still brings tears to my eyes to think of the love and devotion she has shown to me during this time.
But then, he said there were other bubbles he could see around him, and they had other people in them. He distinctly remembered a black-haired woman singing in the bubble closest to his, until one day, her bubble burst, and she disappeared. When he woke up, he could give a very clear description of her body, age, and all that. Now here's the wild part...
There was a woman, one floor below him, in a coma who sadly had passed away before he woke up. You guessed it — black hair, age, body all correct. He had never met or seen this woman in his life. His whole idea of life changed after this. It still makes me think sometimes... Where was he? He thinks all the people in bubbles around him were patients in the same hospital. Could it be? We'll probably never know.
When I woke up, I felt super tired, but then the next few days, kinda restless. I remembered one conversation my mom had with a nurse while I was under. After a couple of days, I got my long-term memory back and remembered everything up until my second surgery then nothing until I woke up. My son was my third surgery. So, my son was what surprised me.
Since I had no idea what had happened or where I was I just got up (or tried to anyway) and all the machines went off and a nurse came running into the room and told me to sit down. I don't remember anything that happened during the coma, no dreams, no sense of time moving. Just like a dreamless sleep.
Apparently, though I was able to do basic commands in the coma. Like a doctor told me to open my eyes so they could take my contacts out. I'd squeeze a hand if told to, but otherwise, I didn't move or respond to anything. I don't recall any of it though. Doctors think I went into this coma as a way to preserve energy to keep me alive. I had to get 5 pints of blood and had IV drips in both arms while I was out. It's weird to think about how it happened I was there and yet I have no memories of it.
When I would wake up in my head, I had no idea as to what had happened. So, I'm fully conscious, I know that I'm me, but I can't open my eyes, I can't move a muscle and I can't speak. The first time it happened was terrifying. I started to panic and for a minute there, I thought I might be dead. Then I realized that I was thinking, so that didn't seem right. I tried to move and couldn't. I tried to speak and couldn't. I tried to scream and couldn't.
The next time it happened was when my best friend came to see me. Again, I can't move, I can't see, and I can't talk. But when I 'woke up' in my head, I could feel her holding my hand and asking me to squeeze if I could hear her talking. I tried as hard as I could to squeeze my hand, and I could feel it doing absolutely nothing. When she let go to walk away, I was completely devastated. I tried to scream for her to stay, but obviously, nothing happened. However, I was so glad that people I knew were there wherever I was and that I was getting help (even though I felt completely helpless). That kind of helped. I had to calm myself down again so that I could drift off again.
When I was finally brought out of the coma, my parents were there and that didn't make any sense because my parents lived two states away at the time. I eventually learned that they had been there the entire time. They dropped everything in their lives and came to be with me and stayed there throughout the entire ordeal. After a couple of days (I think), some doctors came in and asked me a bunch of questions.
The first question was what year it was — that I knew because I remembered getting sick on New Year's Eve, so I knew it was 2000. Next was who the president was. I answered Clinton, so I got that right. Then they asked if I knew where I was. I assuredly said, 'Honolulu' because, in my dreams, I had been in Honolulu. When all of their faces had that confused Scooby-Doo look is when I realized that wasn't quite right, so I pd that I must have been back in Salt Lake City (somehow). They appeared quite relieved when I came up with that.
For all the people wondering how I slept, I didn't for the first couple of days. If I dozed off, my blood O2 monitor would start beeping and wake me up, then a nurse would yell at me from across the ICU to remember to breathe. I couldn't talk because I'd had the tubes down my nose and throat, but I remember one time I woke up, really exhausted, to that damn beeping. So, I started focusing on breathing again, but I was really angry about it.
My nurse came running over yelling at me to breathe. I glared at her and screamed in my non-existent voice, 'I. AM.' She must have read my lips and felt the rage because she just put her hands up and said, 'All right. All right. Good job,' then walked away. My ability to breathe normally was back within a month or so, and my health is good nowadays, so I wouldn't say it had any permanent effects.
*** Afterward** This is the second time in my life I have related this much about my life publicly and it has been good and at the same time really painful. Thanks to everyone for being kind. I wrote this story seven months ago and published it in the lounge and I really hurt myself doing it. This time I wanted to share about my life afterward and I hope it has been of some benefit to others that struggle with mental issues.
This place saves lives and gives hope and guidance to millions of people and I feel lucky to be part of the community.
I had nightmares the entire time from the medicine they were using to knock me out. I thought I had been kidnapped by a nurse and was a victim of sex trafficking. I thought my drug addict aunt had her friends rob my sister and her husband, killing my brother-in-law and one of their children, and I thought I was constantly being grabbed by people under my bed. It was not fun.
I can't say that I knew I was in a coma or anything. I am usually one of those people who when I have a bad dream, I can tell myself it is just a dream and wake myself up in order to end it. This was not like that. I was convinced it was all really happening.
I spent two weeks in the coma and another 48 days. Today, I'm a happy, healthy 17-year-old. If I can say anything about what happened that day, it's that it changed my life for the better.
This went on for around 10 days, and then he woke up from a night's sleep and could suddenly speak only English again, not remembering a word of Choctaw. He was also able to repeat verbatim every conversation that had been held in the room that he was in.
I had brain surgery. I was under for 5 months. The lobby lady told me, she was there every day. Never missed a day, there was no need to come to visit me. But she would stay there after school till night fell. So like 5 hours.
I never felt so loved ever. It swept the ground (what I thought of her) from under my feet. I was blank.
When I did wake up. She was the first thing I saw. There she was, my sister. Who always hated my guts. I don’t know what made her change, I never asked but I was glad. I knew it was genuine. She wasn’t even surprised, she just looks at me and says “Took you long enough.” We cried and hugged it out.
And she was a completely different person after that. I don’t know what it does to/in people that change them. But I’m glad that it does.
Then I realized why people just didn’t get up from a bedridden state and needed help. Because the back is stiff. XD lolz
Well, we wish that things are that simple. Those TV drama's details convince us that going into a coma is just like going to sleep. The only difference is that the time may be much longer. After people wake up, they feel like they're young and energetic as ever. But, in real life, things are much more complicated. And as usual, what people experience during a coma is quite depressing.
If you have ever wondered what the condition is like, lucky you because we have found some people who can answer your question most accurately. In the Ask Reddit community, we've come across some threads where people described how they fell into this stage and what they remembered. There we found a lot of stories that took us from one surprise to another. It's thought that people sleep safe and sound during a coma, but it turns out that coma survivors have many things to tell.
Lucid dream, fictional world, nightmare; each person reacts to their unconsciousness differently. Some even sound like they enter a supernatural realm where they can interact with souls and other people in the same condition. So bewildering to hear.
Now, do you feel curious to know their stories? Let's scroll down and check out those stories in the list below.
#1 This needs to be shared with all medical workers, but esp those who treat comatose patients
Source: Blameking27, Pixabay
A friend of mine was in a 6-month coma after an accident. Afterward, he made sure to tell everyone around him to talk to people in a coma because they can hear him. BUT he noted that they should always tell the person in a coma what happened, where they are, and what's happening to them because he said that his moments of lucidity were mixed with some truly horrifying dreams and he had trouble distinguishing between what was real and what were dreams. He said he just wanted to be told what was real and what was happening.
#2 A perfect wife
Source: Tinman556, Bret Kavanaugh
Once I realized that I was still alive, I thought I had been injured fighting in a war and worried that my wife might not know I was still alive. Trying to communicate with the nurses while intubated and drugged was very difficult.
What I learned later from my wife is that she was there the whole time and while I was fighting against the doctors and nurses, I would immediately calm down and cooperate when she held my hand and sang to me. It still brings tears to my eyes to think of the love and devotion she has shown to me during this time.
#3 Guessing someone discussed the woman and her passing and he incorporated it into a dream?
Source: KayPet, Marc Sendra Martorell
But then, he said there were other bubbles he could see around him, and they had other people in them. He distinctly remembered a black-haired woman singing in the bubble closest to his, until one day, her bubble burst, and she disappeared. When he woke up, he could give a very clear description of her body, age, and all that. Now here's the wild part...
There was a woman, one floor below him, in a coma who sadly had passed away before he woke up. You guessed it — black hair, age, body all correct. He had never met or seen this woman in his life. His whole idea of life changed after this. It still makes me think sometimes... Where was he? He thinks all the people in bubbles around him were patients in the same hospital. Could it be? We'll probably never know.
#4 Sort of what happened to Captain America
Source: horsman, Martha Dominguez de Gouveia
A friend of ours fell into a coma at age 25 (around 1992) and woke up at age 36 (around 2002). She was a Rhodes Scholar nominee (I think, second-hand information) and quite brilliant. She was still 25 mentally — as if everything was just on pause. Her body was really well-preserved; she's really fun and cool and sort of the ultimate cougar. Plus, she totally woke up to the internet.
#5 Hope he's in a better place now
Source: Ask_A_Sadist, Frederic Köberl
My friend was in a coma about ten years ago for roughly three weeks. Car accident. When he woke up we visited him and when I was alone with him he told me it was like a lucid dream. The real world was gone and he felt like he was in a world he could create himself for years. He was dead serious too, he talked on and on about how he had a slight understanding that he was not in the real world anymore and that he thought he might be in heaven.
About how he felt like, he was actually dying and his last few seconds just stretched on and on forever. He said that's what it felt like. He mentioned that he could fly (in the coma dream) and that it was amazing. He spent a little while in the hospital, then went home, and did physical therapy for about two weeks before killing himself with pain pills and vodka. People thought the pain was too much, that it was an accidental overdose, or that the therapy and the accident made him feel helpless and depressed.
Honestly, I think he wanted back into his lucid dream world. The way he talked about it was like the best thing he ever experienced.
#6 Surprise! Surprise!
Source: PennyCundiff, Aditya Romansa
When I woke up, I felt super tired, but then the next few days, kinda restless. I remembered one conversation my mom had with a nurse while I was under. After a couple of days, I got my long-term memory back and remembered everything up until my second surgery then nothing until I woke up. My son was my third surgery. So, my son was what surprised me.
#7 Now that is interesting
Source: betsaronie, Phillip Goldsberry
Since I had no idea what had happened or where I was I just got up (or tried to anyway) and all the machines went off and a nurse came running into the room and told me to sit down. I don't remember anything that happened during the coma, no dreams, no sense of time moving. Just like a dreamless sleep.
Apparently, though I was able to do basic commands in the coma. Like a doctor told me to open my eyes so they could take my contacts out. I'd squeeze a hand if told to, but otherwise, I didn't move or respond to anything. I don't recall any of it though. Doctors think I went into this coma as a way to preserve energy to keep me alive. I had to get 5 pints of blood and had IV drips in both arms while I was out. It's weird to think about how it happened I was there and yet I have no memories of it.
#8 The thought of going through what the OP went through is terrifying
Source: TheOpus, Olga Kononenko
When I would wake up in my head, I had no idea as to what had happened. So, I'm fully conscious, I know that I'm me, but I can't open my eyes, I can't move a muscle and I can't speak. The first time it happened was terrifying. I started to panic and for a minute there, I thought I might be dead. Then I realized that I was thinking, so that didn't seem right. I tried to move and couldn't. I tried to speak and couldn't. I tried to scream and couldn't.
The next time it happened was when my best friend came to see me. Again, I can't move, I can't see, and I can't talk. But when I 'woke up' in my head, I could feel her holding my hand and asking me to squeeze if I could hear her talking. I tried as hard as I could to squeeze my hand, and I could feel it doing absolutely nothing. When she let go to walk away, I was completely devastated. I tried to scream for her to stay, but obviously, nothing happened. However, I was so glad that people I knew were there wherever I was and that I was getting help (even though I felt completely helpless). That kind of helped. I had to calm myself down again so that I could drift off again.
When I was finally brought out of the coma, my parents were there and that didn't make any sense because my parents lived two states away at the time. I eventually learned that they had been there the entire time. They dropped everything in their lives and came to be with me and stayed there throughout the entire ordeal. After a couple of days (I think), some doctors came in and asked me a bunch of questions.
The first question was what year it was — that I knew because I remembered getting sick on New Year's Eve, so I knew it was 2000. Next was who the president was. I answered Clinton, so I got that right. Then they asked if I knew where I was. I assuredly said, 'Honolulu' because, in my dreams, I had been in Honolulu. When all of their faces had that confused Scooby-Doo look is when I realized that wasn't quite right, so I pd that I must have been back in Salt Lake City (somehow). They appeared quite relieved when I came up with that.
#9 That would be so scary and hard to relearn that
Source: DROPTHENUKES, Quinn Dombrowski
For all the people wondering how I slept, I didn't for the first couple of days. If I dozed off, my blood O2 monitor would start beeping and wake me up, then a nurse would yell at me from across the ICU to remember to breathe. I couldn't talk because I'd had the tubes down my nose and throat, but I remember one time I woke up, really exhausted, to that damn beeping. So, I started focusing on breathing again, but I was really angry about it.
My nurse came running over yelling at me to breathe. I glared at her and screamed in my non-existent voice, 'I. AM.' She must have read my lips and felt the rage because she just put her hands up and said, 'All right. All right. Good job,' then walked away. My ability to breathe normally was back within a month or so, and my health is good nowadays, so I wouldn't say it had any permanent effects.
#10 It is a courageous thing to do, and I hope that you continue to heal and lean toward the hope
Source: Chris_Thrush, Martha Dominguez de Gouveia
*** Afterward** This is the second time in my life I have related this much about my life publicly and it has been good and at the same time really painful. Thanks to everyone for being kind. I wrote this story seven months ago and published it in the lounge and I really hurt myself doing it. This time I wanted to share about my life afterward and I hope it has been of some benefit to others that struggle with mental issues.
This place saves lives and gives hope and guidance to millions of people and I feel lucky to be part of the community.
#11 That's terrifying! I'm always afraid of something like that happening
Source: senorcoach, MedicAlert UK
I had nightmares the entire time from the medicine they were using to knock me out. I thought I had been kidnapped by a nurse and was a victim of sex trafficking. I thought my drug addict aunt had her friends rob my sister and her husband, killing my brother-in-law and one of their children, and I thought I was constantly being grabbed by people under my bed. It was not fun.
I can't say that I knew I was in a coma or anything. I am usually one of those people who when I have a bad dream, I can tell myself it is just a dream and wake myself up in order to end it. This was not like that. I was convinced it was all really happening.
#12 It's so sweet that your Dad read to you while you were out
Source: XxBURNB0YxX, Levi Meir Clancy
I spent two weeks in the coma and another 48 days. Today, I'm a happy, healthy 17-year-old. If I can say anything about what happened that day, it's that it changed my life for the better.
#13 These language-related comas/recoveries are very interesting!
Source: GoldH2O, Gilberto Olimpio
This went on for around 10 days, and then he woke up from a night's sleep and could suddenly speak only English again, not remembering a word of Choctaw. He was also able to repeat verbatim every conversation that had been held in the room that he was in.
#14 It's terrible what you went through however it is so heartwarming to hear that your sister was there for you throughout it all and still is
Source: War-Whorese, Saulo Zayas
I had brain surgery. I was under for 5 months. The lobby lady told me, she was there every day. Never missed a day, there was no need to come to visit me. But she would stay there after school till night fell. So like 5 hours.
I never felt so loved ever. It swept the ground (what I thought of her) from under my feet. I was blank.
When I did wake up. She was the first thing I saw. There she was, my sister. Who always hated my guts. I don’t know what made her change, I never asked but I was glad. I knew it was genuine. She wasn’t even surprised, she just looks at me and says “Took you long enough.” We cried and hugged it out.
And she was a completely different person after that. I don’t know what it does to/in people that change them. But I’m glad that it does.
Then I realized why people just didn’t get up from a bedridden state and needed help. Because the back is stiff. XD lolz
#15 This person needs to be shown more kindness in their life. I hope they find it
Source: anon, Marcelo Leal