jtassinaro

In a story I'm writing, my character gets pistol whipped and I want to put her in a coma. However, I don't want to put her on a ventilator. From what I see on TV, be it reality TV or a series, it seems that comas and ventilators go hand in hand. I tried looking it up on the internet, but got no concrete info. I was wondering how often it happens that people are in comas and are NOT on ventilators? I also don't know if the injury my character suffers is worthy of a ventilator coma or a non-ventilator (here I go making up words again) coma. I don't know if anyone can answer this, but if anyone has any advice that could point me in the right direction, it would be much appreciated!

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lin

You're talking about a respirator, right? Not required: you can have yourself a nice, restful coma without one. They are a movie cliche (like biomonitors with little blip graphs) that make things look dramatic.

Another thing you notice about comas and amnesia in films and stories: they aren't very medically accurate and tend to be convenient. Bump you head and lose your memory until the plot has you bump your head again and get it back, etc.

You have quite a bit of leeway. You can even make up a Jenniferized medical name for condition. Reality isn't as important as making it SOUND REAL.

jtassinaro

I like it!! LOL

Thanks for the response. Maybe I will give her Jenniferized condition. LOL

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Kimba

Most comas are a result of head injuries and for someone to end up in a coma, that injury would have to be pretty serious. Medically speaking, being pistol whipped wouldn't warrant a serious enough injury to put someone in a coma. Maybe concussion, yes. Now, if someone was bashed over the head with a baseball bat ...

Generally speaking, those in comas and on ventilators are those who have suffered serious enough spinal injuries to warrant it. Any injury at C1 or C2 level [just below the base of the skull] would cause respiratory failure. I specialise in looking after people on ventilators in RL so if I could be of assistance ...

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Kimba
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neuro_jones

I agree with the above posts. Usually respirators are only used when the upper cervical vertebrae get damaged. And the head trauma would probably end up as a mild concussion, with a bright flash of light right when it happened, followed by a blackout for a period of time and slight short term memory loss.

Go pre-med!

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I don't write, I compose greatness onto media. I want someone to connect with my story on such a level that if I kill-off the main character, they walk around town for a week believing they're a ghost.

Kimba

There seems to be an echo in here ...

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Kimba
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jtassinaro

Thanks for the info. I want to be as medically correct as possible. Nothing annoys me more than when people write about stuff they know nothing about but try to play it off like they're some kind of expert.

I'll have to re-think that part a bit.

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