“The Brain Is A Fragile Thing”: 50 People Who Woke Up From A Coma Describe What It Was Actually Like

Not me but my 13 year old student who was hit in the head by the side mirror of a passing car and in a coma in ICU for several weeks. His parents were lovely people and were at loose ends about their son's condition. They gave me permission to visit him.

I would go to the ICU most days after school and bring along his 16 year old sister to visit when she wanted. In the first few days I would tell him he was in excellent care and his body was resting up after an accident that bumped his head. Later days I would reassure him that he would be OK, the friends he was with were all fine, and all his classmates sent their best to him. Somedays I would tell him about the book we had been reading in class. I would then tell his class how he was doing and bring back their messages to him.

Later when he woke, he told me he could hear me telling him that he was safe and would be all right. He remembered me telling him his body was resting so he could get better and he was not scared. I was pretty surprised he had those memories, and relieved that he was not afraid. No one can be sure how deep the coma might be or if comforting words might help.

I had heard this and tried to always orient coma patients when I did care. I felt stupid but if there was a chance I could make them feel less afraid or safer it was worth looking stupid.

After I left critical care and went to labor and delivery I didn't have any more patients like that until...

A pregnant woman came in who was catatonic/unresponsive. For weeks I would chat, tell her the news, talk about her other kids and how cute they were, that she couldn't fall out of bed because I was much bigger than her and was between her and the floor, you know- basic conversation.

After she had the baby, her condition resolved and she came back to see us. Apparently she remembered everything I said! She told me it kept her sane! She cried, I cried, even the baby cried.

But really? I've never felt foolish since.

First, great question. I was in a coma for approximately 7 days. In the 2 weeks leading up to my induced coma, I’d undergone 4 open-heart surgeries and was on the verge of a 5th (an eventual heart transplant). I was put in a coma that was commonly called “Neckmo” (the medical term is Ecmo). It’s a horrific way to be, tubes come out of your neck (hence the play on words).

Anyway, throughout the entirety of my induced coma I was aware. Many people have correctly said they remember being in a dream state. That is very accurate. I can remember my mother’s voice and my dad’s everyday. They’d talk to me and ask me questions. Doctors/nurses would come in and say I couldn’t hear, but my family persisted. My sweet sister played me my favorite records, put headphones on me and believed I’d be okay. That I’d pull through.

I did. And I relayed most of the conversations I’d heard much to their shock. It's something like a fever dream, you’re aware and conscious but something is clearly not right. Your mind compensates for what your body can just barely survive.

To this day I cry every time I hear Pearl Jam’s “Alive”. That was a consistent play through my headphones. Eddie Vedder jokes aside, that song saved my life during and after my experience.

Nearly 8 years later and I’m living with a heart transplant. And all is well.

No, I was unaware of anything. When I woke up, I did not remember being pregnant. My husband told me that we now had a baby girl and I was puzzled how. I had a stroke at 9mos pregnant and started seizing. I was rushed to the hospital and had a csection. My daughter was over a week old before I met her. My husband took care of us both and saved our lives. She is now a nursing student at UCF and we have married for 26 years.

No I didn’t but I did have a conversation with my son who had [passed away] the previous August when he was 20. He asked me to come with him, I told him I can’t as I still need to raise your brother and sister. He understood and said I love you. It was the most amazing feeling.

Friend of mine was in one for 6 months. He said he was in a constant dream of being stuck in a wall and couldn't move. And was thirsty. When he woke, all he wanted was water. He told his family if it happened again to pull the plug.

Not me, but my grandma. She went into a coma a few days before she passed. She had been sick for years with liver cirrhosis and had already kinda explained to us that she was “ready”. Because of this she had paperwork drawn up (she was a lawyer) that said she was not to be hospitalized, so my mom legally couldn’t have her admitted to the hospital. My grandma hated hospitals and refused to [pass] in one. Anyway, I was in high school then and I would go see her and talk to her every day before and after school. One day, my grandpa was sitting by her feet and me and my mom were talking to her. My mom told her “Hey mom, Dad is sitting at your feet. I know you’ve always wanted to kick him in the [behind], well now is your chance”. And she kicked him. Several times. It was actually a beautiful moment. We all laughed and cried and it really gave us peace of mind knowing she could hear what we were saying before she [passed].

One of my friends was in a coma before receiving a new heart. He said that he remembers in his unconscious state, someone playing a CD from one of his favourite bands every single day. He would be in a terrible place, like a nightmare and then the music would come through and everything was ok. Turns out it was his Mother playing the CD for him.

My dad was in a coma for about a month from encephalitis. He has vivid memories (he won't call them dreams) of nurses trying to suffocate him by taking him into rooms with little oxygen and my mother telling him he's fine and he'll be fine while he struggled to tell her he couldn't breathe. During his month of unconsciousness he was on a ventilator which they would lower everyday for a few hours to strengthen his lungs so he could breath on his own.

My in-laws were in a horrific accident 2 years ago. My FIL was ok physically but was in a trauma-induced coma for several weeks. My MIL didn't have a brain injury but was kept in a medically induced coma for several weeks due to her extensive injuries.

Their experiences couldn't have been more different. 2 years later, FIL still remembers nothing, even of the months leading up to the accident. As he was coming out of the coma (a process that took several weeks) he lost all memory of the last ten years. He'd moved to the US ten years before that, but was convinced he was still in the other country and refused to speak English. My husband and I had been married about 8 years at that point, and even when he got to the place where he was recognising us, he thought we were still dating. He slowly moved "forward" through time as he regained most of his memories over a period of months.

My MIL has some memories from that time, but they are all tainted by terrible hallucinations. For example, she thought she was in a prison, locked in a dark cell (she couldn't open her eyes) chained up (she couldn't move). The guards (nurses) would beat her (the pain from her injuries) and suffocate her (her lungs were crushed and the intubation tubes would get clogged and she got pneumonia) and s**b her (incisions from surgery). We would come to rescue her (visitation hours) but always got caught and dragged away before we could save her (end of visiting hours).

Sometimes we could see tears running out of her eyes, even though she couldn't move, see, or speak. It was pretty terrible to see.

I was in a coma for 6 days about 7 1/2 years ago. My family were told I had a 20% chance to live. I wasn’t aware of anything while I was in the coma. I was however TERRIFIED when I came out. I start screaming at the nurses (majorly uncharacteristic of me). So apparently when I was in the coma about 12 hours before I was conscious again, I unknowingly ripped my breathing tube out of my throat. Not knowing it would actually save my life. The doctors were worrying how long they were going to keep the tube in for. I was told that if it were in a few days longer It probably would have collapsed my lungs. I remember not being able to walk very well. I was super weak and walking wasn’t my strong suit at that point. The doctors and nurses told me they didn’t want me to walk at all after the first time. I’m a pretty big guy (6’ 230lbs ish) and all that water buffalo on the ground, it would take a very large group of people to pick me up (or one medium sized crane). But I said I’m gonna walk. And I did. I forced my self to walk. To the end of the hall the 2nd time. (Bed to door the first time) and so on, a little longer every time. Until after 3 days I could walk around the whole floor twice. I was sent home then. It still took 3 minuets to get up 14 stairs for a few days after I got there.

I tell y’all 1 important lesson I learned. There could be no tomorrow. There is only today. Who cares if someone cut you off in traffic and stupid [stuff] like that. Love your family, love your friends, love your husband, love your wife, love your girlfriend or boyfriend. But love yourself. Most of all and I can’t stress this enough, love everyone else. Be nice to people. SMILE ONCE IN A WHILE!! A simple smile can brighten someone’s day. Even if you fake it it will still being joy to people (just don’t to that creepy smile. You’re scaring people. STOP lol). You know what’s important in your life and you realize everything else that’s negative is not something you need in your life. Since then I have a saying “Be the pebble”. As I said a snails can brighten up someone day even if you fake it. That small gesture can spread like ripples in a pond and open up a world of positivity. Laugh more and surround yourself with love more. The more love you have, the more love you’ll give.

Let the little things go. They are not worth it.

My mother was in an induced coma for several months. While she was under, they amputated both of her legs due to sepsis. When she woke up, we asked her a similar question - she replied that she hadn't been aware of us, but that she had had some horrific nightmares about having her legs chewed off by demons and vampires.

Not me but my dad.

He said, for what he thinks is the entirety of the time he spent in the coma (6 months), that he was in the sewer below his favorite bar, there was an alligator, he could see people walking over a sewer grate, cigarettes would be flicked down at him, and he was always keeping an eye on the alligator, and he knew if he made a sound it would get him.

It never occurred to him it wasn't real, or that alligators arent in the sewers, or that it was always night, or that no one looked down to see him. It was just his reality for 6 months.

Edit: yes i know there are gators in the sewers. This bar however is in pennsylvania. My dad is, however, from florida and used to keep gators as pets in the spare bathtub, until they got too big and he'd release them. He's always had a kinship with them, but not the one in his coma/dream.

I remember absolutely nothing from the real world while I was in a coma. I was in a motorcycle accident and they put me in a medically induced coma for about a week to heal me up. During this period, I was living my regular life except, there was this portal that would follow me around. One minute I would be driving my truck to work and all of a sudden I'd be zapped to somewhere in Montana (or whichever state it would bring me to). As if this was my real life, I would walk around to different gas stations looking for a phone to call my wife to pick me up. Every day that I was living irl, I would be "zapped" to different states about 5 times a day. When I woke up from the coma, I couldn't remember ever being in the hospital. I thought that I had been living normal life the whole time. I guess my coma experience is very different compared to everyone else's lol.

Not my own situation. My friends mother was in a severe car accident in her 20s, and was in a coma for 2 or 3 months following. They kept a radio playing at her bedside during the day because they were told it could help in some way. She woke up aware of current events and new songs but didn't remember another single thing about the accident or coma.

Now, 40 years later she has dementia but still whistles the tunes of the few songs she learned in her comatose state.

Not a patient, but an ICU nurse.

Just because someone is sedated (“medically induced coma”) or unresponsive doesn’t mean they can’t hear you. I’ve been told numerous times that my patients remember certain things from these times. Most people don’t but I always err on the side of caution.

I routinely discuss a patient’s condition with their family in the room, but I would never say anything to them I wouldn’t say to the patient. And I tell them the same. If there’s something you don’t want them to know, don’t say it because we don’t know how and why certain people remember and others don’t.

Late to the party and this will likely be buried but I was in a coma for 2 months. Caught a nasty strain of pneumonia and all the doctors thought I'd die (found that out recently, had no idea for 5 years). I remember the nurses talking and [complaining] all the time. I remember my mum coming in and holding my hand, bawling her eyes out and begging me to wake up and telling me she loves me. I remember the doctors coming in and touching my arms and legs. I remember feeling the nurses give me a shot in my stomach that stops blood clotting in the legs.

I had a weird dream about being a dark tunnel and there was a door at the end. I wanted to go through it but some old guy beat me to it. Before he went in he looked back at me with the most sad look on his face and he shook his head. I turned around and ran back the other way and that's when I woke up.

Apparently [was gone] for a few seconds. Found out a bit later on from talking to my mum that some old guy had [passed away] from the same nasty strain of pneumonia in the room next to me, just before I'd [been gone] for those few seconds.

I don't believe in god or an afterlife. I don't believe in ghosts or that there is meaning in dreams. So take what you will from that dream, but it was creepy as [hell].

I was severely electrocuted when I was about 4 years old. I stuck a screwdriver into a transformer.

There were a couple of guys working on it at the time but they were off to lunch but left it unlocked. My dad is a jack of all trades kinda guy and I wanted to by like dad and help the guys working on the transformer. So I went into our shed, grabbed a screwdriver and walked over and just jammed it into the transformer. I was thrown back a few feet, right hand burnt. Both of the bottoms of my feet burned. Screwdriver handle melted from the current passing through it. My mom heard me scream and came running even though she lost sight of me for only a minute. I took an ambulance ride to the hospital.

My mom says I was out cold for 3 days. They ran every test they could on me. Monitored brain waves. Checked my heart. Bandaged my hand and feet. First they said I might be mentally damaged from the current. Then they said I might have heart problems. Then they said I might have lost sensation in my hand and feet. All while they are doing these tests and telling my poor mother all these terrible things, I was playing in the sand box in my grandmas front yard. I don't remember this but after I woke up, my mom asked me if I remembered anything and I guess that is what I told her.

Thankfully my hands and feet are just fine. My heart is good. No side effects there. I never had brain damage of any kind in the years following. BUT the real effects are showing. I cannot remember [anything] long term. Like, I cannot remember almost my entire childhood. I remember bits here and there but ONLY if I am told of them or see a picture. Otherwise it is just gone. Poof! I am 30 and most all of my teenage years are gone and I'm already forgetting things from my 20's. And I also seem to be sterile. I've been with my gf for 11 years and we have been trying for kids for the past 5 now. She has never been late with her period once. I've never been to the Dr to prove this but a few studies I've read say that severe electrocution at an early age can make a person sterile.

TLDR: Was in a coma like state for 3 days after being electrocuted at 4 years old. Told my mom after I woke up that all I remember while being out was that I was playing in the sandbox at my grandma's house.

When I was 34 weeks pregnant. I had the flu shot and developed GBS. Had terrible pain.

Finally, hospital kept me when my O2 levels dropped and they intubated me to keep me alive. Medically induced coma for 3 weeks while they tried to figure out what was wrong. Had to have an emergency C section while in this coma when my son’s O2 dropped.

I remember the doctors. I heard the nurses. I remember the one who was so mean and annoyed and the one who cared for me and cleaned me up. I woke a few times to machines and complete paralysis feeling scared and sick... not knowing what has happened. My mind made up stories between dreaming and reality. It was so crazy....

I was in a medically induced coma due to illness for 2-3 days at age 7. I heard everything! The doctor telling my parents to be prepared that I’d likely not survive, then revising the prognosis to surviving but with severe brain damage. (I ended up fine)
I don’t remember being aware that I couldn’t move but being very aware that I couldn’t speak due to the ventilator.