Signs of death in a coma patient, their causes and degrees of coma

 Signs of death in a coma patient It is important to identify them and know the degrees of these signs and do they mean the confirmed death of the patient and then the futility of having devices that help him to survive, and a person may be exposed to a coma for different periods depending on the condition that caused him to enter it, and in the contents site we learn about the signs of death In a coma patient, we also learn about the most common causes of coma, and the degrees of coma according to the Glasgow Scale.

coma

Coma is a state of loss of consciousness and lack of response to surrounding stimuli, whether audio, visual, or sensory. It can be said that a coma is a state of deep sleep from which it is not possible to wake up easily due to brain damage or the death of vital parts of it. A person with a coma is alive both medically and functionally. In many cases, his heart is working normally and his breathing is also normal, but at other times, with the development of coma and the person remaining unconscious for long periods, he needs assistive devices to keep the brain and heart working properly.

The coma has no specific duration, as doctors are often unable to wake the patient until he wakes up by himself. As long as the patient did not enter the stage of brain death.

Signs of death in a coma patient

A coma patient can wake up at any moment without problems as long as there is no brain death or severe damage to the vital parts of the head and brain cells, but in some cases, the coma is a prelude to death and evidence of the expiration of the term, and the following are the signs of death in a coma patient:

• The patient in a coma does not respond in the slightest when touched or pinched the skin.
• The patient's eye does not respond definitively when opened and highlighted in a coma state.
• The absence of natural reflexive movements that the body involuntarily performs when exposed to a sudden stimulus.
• The patient's eye does not move below the eyelids when moving his head to the right or left.
• Stop breathing except with the help of medical devices, which in the event of stopping the patient dies and suffers from respiratory failure.
• The absence of brain activity under the brain activity measurement device means that the patient has had a stroke.
• A major disturbance in the movement of digestion and internal organs of the patient, where food cannot be entered into his body through medical solutions and tubes.
• Sudden rise in body temperature or a sudden drop in temperature without warning.

Does a coma cause death?

Not every coma causes death, but it depends on the extent of the depth of the coma and the reason that entered the patient in this case. There is a light coma that the patient wakes up from quickly, such as a diabetic coma or a coma that affects a person when shocks and accidents or hearing the sudden sad news, and in many of these cases, the coma does not cause death. The coma lasts only for a short period, which may not exceed an hour, and then the patient and his vital systems return to their previous work.

But in other cases, the coma may be strong and cause significant damage to the vital human systems, and then it may in this case be a cause of death, especially if the patient is not urgently placed under urgent and intensive medical care.

Causes of coma

Many reasons may lead to a coma, including the following:

• Stroke: Stroke occurs due to a rupture of a blood vessel in the human brain or due to a blockage of a major artery, and then the blood that carries oxygen and nutrients does not reach the brain and brain cells, and the vital parts of it suffer a stroke or brain death.
• Brain injuries: These are injuries that occur due to a strong accident that leads to a violent concussion in the brain or internal bleeding in the brain membranes.
• Cancerous tumors: In many cases, brain cancer leads to a coma, and benign tumors are also considered one of the reasons for entering a coma because of the impact of these tumors, depending on their size, on the vital parts of the brain.
• Diabetes: Diabetics often experience a diabetic coma due to a sudden rise in blood sugar or a rapid decrease in it, and often the patient wakes up after a short period, but it may develop into death in the event of neglecting the rapid control of sugar in the body.
• Lack of oxygen: A person may fall into a coma due to a lack of oxygen to the brain. Often these cases happen to people who drowned and were rescued after stopping breathing for several minutes, as well as those who had heart attacks and cardiac arrest for a short period may have the same condition.
• Epilepsy: epileptic seizures, if they are frequent and for a long time, may lead the patient to enter a coma, which can be prolonged or shortened, depending on the case.
• Infection: Some infectious diseases affect the brain and the brain that may lead to comae, such as meningitis or spinal cord infection.
• Liquor and alcohol: Liquor may cause a person to go into a state of unconsciousness and coma, which can be severe when the alcohol is spoiled or highly toxic.

Complications resulting from a coma

The fact that a coma does not lead to death in many cases does not mean that it does not leave any effects on the patient. In cases of a simple coma that did not last for a long time, there is little damage that the patient feels after waking up and returning to normal life, while entering a coma Long life under specialized medical devices may cause damage after waking up from it. The patient may develop urinary tract infections after getting out of the coma, and he may also develop clots in the leg due to lack of movement and poor blood circulation in the body, and at other times a person may develop a bed ulcer if The coma was for long periods, and in severe cases, the patient might develop problems in the brain and its vital parts that affect the performance of some body systems.

degrees of coma

The degrees of coma can be identified and measured according to the Glasgow Scale, as follows:

• Eye-opening response: in which the patient progresses from the lowest state to the strongest so that he can open his eye spontaneously, or respond to the sound around him and then open his eye, or open his eye if he is exposed to a painful sensory stimulus, and the last degree is not to open the eye at all.
• Verbal response: This ranges from the lowest to the highest, so he can respond verbally to those around him, speak irregularly while he is confused, or speak incomprehensible words. The penultimate stage is the issuance of a sound only, such as moaning and sighing, and the last stage is a complete cessation of making any sound.
• Motor reactions: the lowest degrees begin with the patient's response to stimuli around him, or he can respond and interact with pain, or he can move his limbs with difficulty, and the last case is the final lack of response to any type of motor stimuli.

Types of coma

There are many types of coma from a medical point of view, which can be identified as follows:

• Metabolic coma: Encephalopathy or metabolic coma is one of the most common types of coma, in which brain functions become weak and debilitated, which leads to the patient entering a state of delirium and incomprehensible speech, and often the patient returns to his normal state after a short period.
• The permanent vegetative state: It is a state of a strong coma in which the patient is unable to respond to the surrounding stimuli and does not interact with the surrounding environment, making it more like a plant that grows and remains, but does not respond to the rest of the stimuli.

How to treat a coma

Treating a coma by itself is not possible, but doctors are working to treat the cause that led to the coma, as follows:

• If the coma is due to a disorder in the blood sugar level, the quick treatment is through the injection of glucose and the installation of analyzes in the blood or by giving the patient an injection of rapid antibiotics.
• The coma that is caused by brain tumors is treated by giving the patient quick drugs that reduce the blood pressure in the brain that occurs due to these tumors, and the next step is to eradicate these tumors with surgery.
• A coma that results from a lack of oxygen in the blood is treated by placing the patient on a respirator to ensure that oxygen reaches the brain. The doctor also checks the airway to ensure that there are no obstacles that prevent the patient from breathing normally.
• Entering into a coma due to ingestion of toxic substances or alcohol is treated by doing a quick gastric lavage, cleaning the digestive system from toxic substances, and giving disinfectants to the patient.

Thus, we have learned about the signs of death in a coma patient, and we have learned about the causes of coma and the factors that may lead to it, in addition to the types of coma, and the extent of the role of coma in the occurrence of death and death. We also learned about the degrees of coma and how to treat it by treating the causes of entering it.