Coma (Medical condition)

A coma is a serious condition that has nothing to do with sleep. People in a coma are unconscious and will not respond to voices, other sounds, or any sort of activity going on around them. He or she is still alive, but his or her brain is functioning at its lowest stage of alertness. You can't shake and wake up someone who is in a coma like you can someone who has just fallen asleep. Comas can be caused by different things, including:

• a severe injury to the head that hurts the brain
• seizures
• infections involving the brain
• brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen for too long
• an overdose (taking too much) of medicine or other drugs
• a stroke

When one of these events occurs, it can mess up how the brain's cells work. This can hurt the parts of the brain that make someone conscious, and if those parts stop working, the person will stay unconscious. A person in a coma usually needs to be cared for in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the hospital. Intensive care units provide extra care and attention from doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff. They make sure the person gets fluids, nutrients, and any medicines he or she needs to keep his or her body as healthy as possible. These are sometimes given through a tiny plastic tube inserted in a vein or through a feeding tube that brings fluids and nutrients directly to the stomach. Sometimes a comatose person is unable to breathe on his own and needs the help of a ventilator, a machine that pumps air into the lungs through a tube placed in the person's windpipe. The hospital staff also tries to prevent bedsores in someone who is comatose. Bedsores are open sores on the body that come from lying in one place for too long without moving at all.