“He Told His Family If It Happened Again To Pull The Plug”: 79 Coma Survivors Share Their Stories

While it might seem like a “convenient” trope right out of bad TV writing, comas are still quite real and, unfortunately, not very well understood. So it can be useful to learn more about how they work and what it’s really like to just not be there for some time.

Someone asked “People who have been in a coma, is it true that you are aware of your consciousness and how did you deal with it knowing that you can’t move?” and netizens shared their stories. So settle in (but not too much) as you read through, upvote the most interesting stories and be sure to share your thoughts in the comments section down below.

#1

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.

#2

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.

#3

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.

#4

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.

#5

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.

#6

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.

#7

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.

#8

I was in and out if awareness. When aware, I half-screamed/half-cried. No one noticed. It’s a stressor that is steadily going away. Almost 2 years.

#9

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].

#10

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.

#11

I was in a coma for nearly a month. I had contracted encephalitis and they didn’t think I would live.

I wasn’t aware I was in a coma, but I do have memories of things that happened. For example, I know a particular relative visited and recall some things that were said in the room where I was. I was aware of people around me, but didn’t understand where I was or anything.

The oddest part was that I only learnt later was that I wasn’t just laid there and that I would move around a lot and on one occasion even got out of bed and wandered down the corridor dragging wires and tubes – including catheters behind me.

When I awoke, I have the memories described above but pretty much no memory of anything else of while being ill and for a lot of months before.

#12

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.

#13

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 stab 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.

#14

In 2013 I was put into a medically induced coma for about 10 days. I only have 1 memory the entire time I was out. My stepfather came to visit and was talking to me and I could hear him and I was trying really hard to talk back, but I couldn’t get any words to come out. I was getting immensely frustrated in my head that I couldn’t talk back. After they woke me up several days later I was telling him about it and he said that when he was talking to me my eyes were moving around really weirdly, but that was it.

I had no idea that I had been in an induced coma when I woke up. I thought it was the same day that I went into the hospital when and after they got the respirator out and I could finally talk, I kept asking to watch something on TV that would’ve been on that day that I’d come in. The nurse had to explain to me that I had been out for 10 days. It felt like I just lost that entire time that I was out. It definitely didn’t feel like I’d been asleep for any longer than just for the surgery.

#15

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.

#16

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].

#17

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….

#18

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.

#19

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.

#20

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.

#21

I was in an induced coma for just under a month.

For the most part I dreamed absolutely vivid and terrifying nightmares that incorporated the world around me. Most of the time I dreamed I was on a boat that was sinking (the bed I was on moved automatically to prevent bedsores), but there are also individual points that I remembered. A parade of friends who were either laughing or crying at me as I was tortured (a group of twenty or so friends skipped school to come see me), my father trying to fight someone (him yelling at a nurse about something), and someone trying to choke me (from being intubated).

As the medications were weaned and I started having a longer and longer periods of lucidity everyone had to keep reminding me that, no, I wasn’t on a boat, and no, you can’t pull the staples out of your scalp.

The boat thing really was traumatizing.I had nightmares about boats (and helicopters, but that was from the Life Flight) for a few years afterward. Before I used to love going out on the water, but afterward even going to the beach would cause me to shake and have cold sweats. It probably took almost a decade before I was able to go to the beach and actually enjoy it.

#22

There are varying degrees of consciousness included in the blanket term “coma,” so there is not a single answer for this question.

I was unconscious for 11 days once. I remember my last moments of consciousness, I remember a moment when a nurse was giving me an ice bath and talking to me, and I remember a moment with my mother standing over me weeping. Otherwise, there was nothing.

#23

I’ll have to emphasize the “varying degrees of consciousness” that is mentioned upthread. I was in a coma for 11 days, and I remember none of it. Yay for amnesia! I don’t remember the 3-4 months before the coma, I don’t remember the car accident that led to the coma, I don’t remember being in a coma, I don’t remember waking up from the coma, and I don’t remember the hospital or the 3-4 months after the accident. TBH my memory is pretty spotty for a couple of years following the accident.

You might want to look up the Glasgow coma scale, which is used by doctors to measure the “depth” of the coma.

#24

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.

#25

I was told by a doctor I was put into an induced coma. I don’t remember being in the coma at all. I still don’t really believe it.

#26

I had a brain abscess when I was 11 and I was in a semi-comatose state. I can only compare it to a terrible hangover but so much that you don’t have the energy or ability to communicate so you just sort of become unalert and withdrawn. However, still aware of your surroundings and conversations people have.

#27

Middle 2015, kidney was failing, caught pneumonia. The doc says we’re going to put you out for a few days. I was actually unconscious for five weeks. My parents flew across country to be with me. I have a very sharp recollection of the many dreams and few nightmares I had. The one that sticks out with outside input in particular was Bindi Irwin, yes, Steve Irwin’s daughter. She was on TV or more particularly I believe Inside Edition getting ready for Dancing with The Stars. My parents were watching some programming with her on it. Well she popped up into one of my dreams and we were somewhere doing yoga. Always struck me as strange. When I woke I noticed her on Inside Edition which my parents almost always watch and it clicked. I may or may not have had other “outside input” but this was the only one I could recall.

#28

I was in a induced coma after having a motorcycle accident and breaking my leg. The break had complications that caused the fat from the bone marrow to get into my blood stream and cause problems for my lungs and brain. I was under for 13 days but distinctly remember every bit of it. I thought that I had been working as a nurse at some made up plastic surgery/emergency somewhere in Asia. I made friends with colleagues that never existed, or at least not in a physical sense. It was very difficult for my family when I woke up as I argued with them about where I was and what I had been doing and the doctors told them that I might stay that way forever and that there was no way of knowing just yet. The problem for me was in the whole split reality. Everything felt just as real as the rest of my life and it really made me question reality. I often wonder about how influenced my dream was by what was going on around me in icu.

#29

Induced comma (2 1/2 months) after giving birth: I don’t remember the last month of pregnancy and didn’t even meet my daughter until she was almost 5 months old. I don’t remember anything that happened. While in a coma, my family came from all over because they were told I may not make it, so there was always a flow of people in and out. I don’t remember any of them being there. I do remember the dream. I was in a coffin-like, clear sided, chamber filled with a goo. I was connected to it and other machines. (Think matrix) I could see my friends and family through the glass, but I couldn’t hear them, or get a clear look at them. I couldn’t move or talk. It was hell for me because even as a dream, I felt trapped, but unlike a normal dream I couldn’t/didn’t wake up. I remember one time I was trying to get out, all I remember is the feeling of drowning, not able to breath. I don’t remember the exact moment they brought me out. When I woke I was connected to multiple machines, breathing machine, feeding tube, and lots of others. By this time most of my family had to go back to their lives. My husband and the family that lives in the area were there, but everyone else was gone. I will say this, I suffered heart, liver, and kidney failure. Due to the heart failure my lungs were filled with fluid. (They had to get drained twice, both times after I woke up). The doctors explained that because I was not fully aware of what was happening, so my mind created it’s own interpretation of what was happening. It used things that I knew (matrix-like setting). They said my friends and family were there because my brain was working and could hear them. It took about a little over a year to fully recover. And I heard voices for about a year and a half after everything. The doctors said that the voices are my brain still processing all the voices I heard while out. Imagine for a moment. You are sitting in a room. You can hear two people talking through the wall. You can hear them, but it is muffled enough that you can’t understand what they are saying. The voices change, but you can never understand what they are saying. That was what the voices sounded like.

#30

My mum was in a medically induced coma. Her lungs had collapsed and was on the ventilator. Doctors said she wouldn’t make it and we should be prepared for the worst. But my dad and I didn’t give up on her and my mum is quite the fighter. We would visit her every day and sit beside her bed. I would caress her arm and tell her about my day and constantly reassure her that she was in safe hands and we were right next to her. Against all odds, my mum pulled through. When she was regaining strength, I asked her if she heard me talking to her and she said, she could her me calling out to her. In her comatose state, she felt trapped like someone had strapped her to her bed and wouldn’t release her. She saw visions of doctors coming to her bed and injecting her with unknown substances and she would feel terrified. She would call out for my dad and I but we would never come. She said, she felt angry at us for not rescuing her. But ever so often, she would hear me saying, “mom” and feel a warm sensation on her arm. She said, that sensation and my voice was the only reason she needed to come back to us.

#31

No you aren’t aware of consciousness or whatever. (Everyone who says you are always reports they had a friend of a friend or whatnot.)
I was in a 2 month coma 2.5 years ago and when you “wake up” it literally feels like you woke up after spending the night at your friends house when you’re little. You know that feeling of nervousness you get when you wake up after sleeping and don’t know where you are? That’s what it feels like.
When I woke up in the hospital I freaked out. (I broke my neck and hip and got really bad brain damage in a car wreck). I didn’t know how old I was or why I was there. It was terrifying. I went to Neuro rehab after for almost a year and met a lot of people who had also been in comas and was very curious if they knew they were in one since you always hear that. I asked about 100 people and no one did. That’s unfortunate but it was good in a sense, I guess. The people that always claim they did (Like Tracy Morgan) always “remember” years after the fact when they’ve had counseling and something to promote.
Mine wasn’t medically induced, though.

#32

Was out for 3 days. I remember my mom crying over my right side, and another with her just waiting in the same spot, and my dad on my left talking to a doctor about the chances of me waking up. I was 15 and it was [medicine] induced.

#33

My grandmother fell into a coma a couple of days after having a stroke. She was in “the big sleep”, as my family called it, for six days and we all gathered around because the doctors weren’t sure if she was going to come out of it or not. I sat down next to her bed, held her hand, and said “Hi Grandma, it’s ” and she squeezed my hand. Instant tears. She did eventually come out of it and when I asked her if she remembered anything from when she was “sleeping”, she said no. It gave me a measure of comfort to think that the hand squeeze I received was intended and not a muscle spasm, but perhaps it was unintended after all.

#34

I was in a coma for five days and all I can say was there was nothingness. I don’t remember hearing anything or any spiritual encounters just nothingness. Then coming to while the nurse was cleaning me and ripping out the ventilator and scaring the living daylights out of the nurse because they quite frankly weren’t expecting me to regain consciousness but could not find any family members to stop life support.

#35

My best friend was put in a coma from a football injury. He basically told me all that he saw while in a coma was nothing but darkness. He woke up after 3 weeks and basically had to learn how to walk, talk, and wipe again.

It’s basically like your brain getting rebooted and everything you ever learned get’s forgotten. I met him AFTER the coma, so I’m not sure what he was like before. But, I do know he’s done some stupid [things] as an adult due to the head injury and brain damage.

#36

Well I was in a car wreck and I was in a coma for almost 2 months after loosing my right leg at 8 years old. At the time I was religious and as churches do they show up to check up on people. I was in a coma so I should not of been aware of this but I remember that there where about 50 people that went in and out of there from my church. I could tell you what some of the people where wearing and even saying. It remember it being scary but also calming… it was weird. I don’t care if people don’t believe me but I saw all of this from the perspective of me being like suspended over my bed. There is not much more to this seeing as it was like this but I also saw some nurses come in and out daily and it was to the point where I knew one of there names when I got out of a coma without them ever telling me. That was one of the weirdest experiences in my life.
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I once had a tube replaced that was in my leg I guess sucking gravel and stuff out of my leg and I kind of remember taking it out but I don’t remember them putting it back in. I guess they upped my dosage of what ever while doing it? The only reason I knew they put it back in was because when I got out of a coma I had the tube in my leg that was attached to this machine that sounded like a breathing machine that you would use when you had something like pneumonia. Also When this happened I did not feel anything but I can HARDLY remember them doing it.
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I also remember having this thing on the left side of my chest right below my shoulder blade that was on the outside of my skin it looked like a metal thing that I guess they could easily draw blood with? I have a scar where it was and that scar is like a bunch of pin holes in the skin. Any Doctors know what this was? I always wondered and my parents forgot what the name of it was so I don’t know how to search it.

#37

I don’t remember much of my first coma. The second one, I had gone to ER due to back pain. I woke up 3 weeks later. Just remember very vivid dreams. No link to reality.

#38

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.

#39

I was in a coma for three days because of a really bad asthma attack. i remember being in the ambulance and feeling really calm. the paramedics were talking to me but i wasnt listening. i remember after that lying on a bed just, screaming. i think they were trying to hold me down and keep me still … but at the same time they were telling me not to go to sleep. and then i remember waking up and having a tube down my throat choking me. i had to write down water on a whiteboard and they put a wet sponge in my mouth.and i remember them taking out the tube and feeling like my throat was way to big for some reason. then a nurse told me i was in a medically induced coma for three days. it was weird but i didnt even realise i was in a coma until waaay after.

#40

I was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma, it had gone into my lungs. I started chemo. I was in the hospital Christmas, New Years, went in the following weekend and had a brain swell. When I got out of the hospital I was sent to rehab. They had the grossest food and I couldn’t eat it so started living on Ensure. I went for months and had both but Ensure and Ginger Ale.

When I went into a 5 day coma was the third time I had woken up in the hospital and had no idea where I was.

I was 300 lbs when I first stopped eating and was at 150 lbs when I went into a coma. I’ve gotten help and am now eating regularly. I have put on 35 lbs but I’m still hot lol.

#41

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.

#42

Ten years ago my son was put in an induced coma for a week to allow him to recover from a severe croup infection. He was four at the time and in the days after he woke up he talked about memories he had from the hospital. He remembered his mum reading him. He remembered me telling his little sister not to take Rufus (his oversized cuddly toy dog). He remembered hearing me talk about the Transformers movie with his cousin. We were all really surprised at how much he could recall from when he was unconscious. That said… he did respond to his mum one day when she told him it was OK to p**p. The nurse was concerned after day 3 that he hadn’t been to the toilet yet and suggested that he was aware he wasn’t on a toilet. She asked mum to tell him he could go to the toilet in the nappy. He squirmed a little bit and finally did his business. He made a good recovery too and is now a healthy, stroppy 14 year old.

#43

I was in a short medically-induced coma after a needle biopsy of the lung placed me on a vent for a bit. When the doctors were deciding whether to take me off 0r not, they got sloppy about writing the meds that kept me “under”. At about the same time, I started bleeding from the biopsy. So I wake up to a fully paralyzed body, on a vent, not sure what is going on, and I hear my mom crying and telling me it was going to be okay. I thought they were pulling the plug on me. I tried my hardest to move anything, focusing on fingers. Nothing. One of my worst memories.

#44

Acquired encephalitis during my freshman year of high school. Last thing I remember was falling over putting in my contacts. My parents thought I was most joking, so I was left on the ground for half an hour. Paramedics said if I was on the ground for another 15 minutes I would’ve been dead. Don’t remember much about the coma, only lasted about 5 days or so. I just know I woke up, my mom started flipping [out] calling for the doctors, and then I passed out for another 9 hours.

The best part of this story is when they were tryin to insert the catheter. They said I sat upright and started to punch the nurses as the were doing it lol. As soon as they stopped, I laid back down lol. Super strange experience.

#45

My sister was in a medically induced coma. She experienced extremely vivid and weird dreams/nightmares that she thought were reality. They repeated over and over and felt like deja vu from her old surgeries.

#46

I was just in a medically induced coma about 3 months ago. The only thing I can remember at all was a time when both my mother and sister were calling me by name. I tried so hard to open my eyes and it just wouldn’t happen. I couldn’t speak because I had been intubated. It felt like I was so far away from them, yet all the while I could hear them calling me. I also don’t remember any of the times I was sort of pulled out so they could check on me to make sure I hadn’t had a stroke or something like that.

Went to ICU Rehab later and was asked a bunch of questions. I was told I was lucky that I don’t remember anything. Apparently random sounds or smells can really throw people off for years after just because they have no idea the context of them but they were there in the room when they were conscious enough.

#47

I was unconscious for 3 days when because someone shoved me down the stairs (Not even accidentally, they just wanted to). I have no memories of it, I do remember waking up, though, when I was in a hospital and my mom slept because it was night. It was like sleeping, only a lot less rememberable. I sat up in my bed and my mom woke up and broke into tears. Strangely, I have no memories of the incident happening.

#48

I was in a non-medically-induced coma for 7 days. Being comatose is probably an entirely different experience for everyone, and this is definitely true between medically-induced vs non-medically-induced coma.

I don’t remember anything from being in the coma… consciously. Though I can’t remember anything from this time, I had answers to questions I mumbled to my mum during my time in the coma. For example, I knew that my brother (who was also in the car) was OK after I ‘woke up’, even though I’d never asked about him while being fully conscious. I think that this is a special case with my brother though, as he’s the most important person in the world to me. The only rational I can come up with is that being around my brother activated more parts of my brain due to the emotional ties we share. The first fleeting ‘memory’ I have (I was still in the coma at this point) is of trying to make my brother laugh.

Additionally though, I knew I couldn’t walk after I’d ‘woken up’ even though I’d only been ‘listening’ to the doctors whilst in the coma. So there are reticent and implicit memories!

#49

I was in a chemically induced coma for a week and I had very vivid hallucinations that I still remember to this day. I did not recognize my consciousness throughout it though, as far as I can tell. My brother was there when I woke up and I literally asked him who I was and what I was doing there. Really really trippy experience.

#50

Not me, but my father in law had a heart dissection almost 2 years ago. He was out of state at the time for work so we (my husband, daughter, sister in law and mother in law) all high tailed it there. He ended up being in the cardiac ICU and unconscious for about 3 weeks. He was chemically induced coma because his heart rate would get too high otherwise.

He had some really trippy dreams that he swore was real, like that hee had a helicopter tourism business that he ran with the family. He was weirdly aware of some things from when he was out. Like he could sense that my daughter was around. They have always been really close so it wasn’t super shocking.

#51

My grandma was in a coma for 10 days when I was little. I would sing you are my sunshine to her every day as that was our special song. She woke up while I was singing it one day and has always said that it’s what pulled her from it :).

#52

Was in a coma for a few days following a car accident (subdural hematoma), and I dreamed of the same car accident over and over, then looking at the night sky and everything fading to black. Then repeat.

I woke up in the middle of night confused in the ICU, realized that it wasn’t a dream, and calmed myself down, told myself to go back to sleep, and I’ll figure it out in the morning.

Crazy.

#53

I was in a coma after getting bacterial meningitis Freshman year of college. I had 3 seizures and went into DIC before they induced me into a coma for 11 days. During that time, the only memory I have is of being in a huge white space, about 3in off the ground. I remember trying to touch the ground and could never get to it. Then I started walking in a determined direction, even though there was nothing different in this space. All of a sudden, people kept coming up to me and making small talk. This went on seemingly for days, and I met people I knew, people I didn’t know, and people I may have met in trivial interactions. (ie: gas station attendants from a trip 3 years prior, waiters from restaurants, etc).

Eventually, I was brought out of the coma and the hardest part was discerning between my dreams and reality. I would wake up, intubated in a hospital, thought it was a dream, then go back to sleep. In my sleep, my dreams became extremely vivid and controllable to a certain extent. It took about 3-4 days to realize that the hospital was real and my vivid dreams were just dreams. It was pretty wild and confusing for my family!

#54

Coma at age 16. Kicked in the head during a high school soccer match, I went dark for 3 days. all I remember is getting to the field (it was an away game) and boom. 3 days later I wake up in the hospital. Didn’t recognize my parents or siblings for the first 2 days, but I somehow knew to trust them. Within 3 weeks l remembered most people and who I was and what had happened. I was in bedrest for 26 days- and on the 27th day I woke up I was able to do a half day at school. 6 years later, I’m doing well, in Film school with a seizure disorder called myoclonus.

#55

My mom was in a coma when she was a teen. She says she remembers being convinced she was in a movie theater. For some reason that’s just what her brain pictured while she was comatose.

#56

I was in an anesthetic coma for a month. It was extremely vivid, horrifying nightmares nearly the entire time. I died by the hands of monsters and torturers countless times, and I felt every bit of it.

It’s nothing like the movies. It’s nothing like some of the creepy pastas I’ve seen here. It’s a horror all its own and you cannot possibly be prepared. I went completely mad and tried to will my heart to stop so I could have the oblivion of true [demise] over what I was experiencing. I was there, not like foggy dreams, but consciously aware of the fact I was trapped in nightmares. Unlike lucid dreaming, I was totally unable to change anything. I was a puppet of tortured flesh.

#57

Went into septic shock and organ failure. Last memory was a nurse coming in the room yelling “her blood pressure is dropping!”

I woke up 3 days later covered in wires and with no memory of what happened in between. It took some time for me to learn and fully comprehend what happened.

#58

I was put into a medically induced coma for a week back in June of ’16 after a bad wreck. I remember waking up that morning and then getting into the car. Then nothing. Not a thing for over 9 days. The first thing i can remember now is being pissed at my sister for not giving me water, even though the doctors told her not to.

#59

I was in a chemically induced coma and had weird dreams and visions of what was going on around me. I later found out from family what really happened but it was not what I had seen at all. It really [messed] with my head.

#60

I was in a coma for 5 days, I had no idea until I woke up.

#61

Was in a coma for 3 days. Dont remember anything during but i must of been told or heard during that we had changed prime minister (aussie) and when i woke up i was asked who our current one was and answered correctly. Other than that it was the best sleep ive ever had.

#62

Multiple times… no recollection at all except when coming back around. They already knew I was coming back. I “recall”, Mr. —, you’ve had a diabetic seizure, you’re okay. Everything is okay. Just try to relax. You’re safe… I was and am. Very little sounds better than an ICU nurse telling you that you are safe when you have no idea what happened.

#63

I was in a medically-induced coma for four days due to meningitis/encephalitis. My last memory was collapsing at home, then I have a few brief flashes of memories of me fighting the restraints in the back of the ambulance, and that’s it. I woke up four days later, but my memory didn’t start working again till the fifth day. It seemed instantaneous to me.

I’ve had slight memory impairment ever since. The brain is a fragile thing.

#64

I don’t remember anything that actually happened, but I remember my dreams from that time more clearly than I’ve probably ever remembered any other dreams.

#65

I was in a coma for 3 days after a bad bike wreck. Don’t remember a thing.

#66

Not me but my boyfriend had an accident while riding a motorcycle, he slid, fell off and the motorcycle rolled and landed on him. He was in a coma for almost a week. He said he didn’t feel or remember anything, he remembered falling off his bike and then next thing waking up in a hospital. He didn’t dream or hear anything.

#67

My husband was in a medically induced coma for about 7 weeks after he got his head bashed in at 19 years old. when i asked him what is was like, he said he remembers it being completely dark and fighting for his life.

#68

When I was in my early 20s I met a girl who had been in a coma for years and had only woke up a few months earlier. She said it was completely black for her.

I hope she’s out there doing well.

#69

I was in a coma for like 4 days. No memories, no dreams. I went to sleep one night, and woke up days later in the ICU. It was medically induced. My first memories after they were bringing me out of the coma are really foggy and I wasn’t really aware of what was happening and where I was for another 2 days.

#70

I was in a coma for 10 days, with a seizure along with it. Didn’t know about either of these things, I thought just took a slightly longer sleep. Except I did have the craziest dream I have ever had.

#71

My cousin had a big fall a few years ago and he stayed in a coma for two weeks.

I’ve asked him, he doesn’t remember the accident, the coma, and the 2-3 months after he woke up.

Which I think is good, because he has broken all the conections in his brain between his left and right side, so he had to re-learn to talk, walk, write and all that stuff. It must have been horrible for him. So good for him not to remember it.

Unfortunately he’s not been the same ever since. Physically (his back is pretty badly hurt but he can walk and drive), but he’s becaome a bit slow physically (not mentally). His body doesn’t work as fast as he used to so he had to find a new job as a disabled man.

It’s been 7 years and he’s in his early 30’s.

#72

When I was 13 I was unconscious for 3 days due to a skateboard accident. I lost 20 minutes before the accident. When I stepped off my front porch I was instantly in the hospital 3 days later with no sense of lost time. It to this day was one of the oddest feeling/moments I’ve ever had.

#73

I knew a guy who went into a coma when he was 14 and it lasted for several months. No one knew what caused it.

He was a squirrely flake before the coma, but after was a disciplined, quiet guy who was very competitive. He told me he couldn’t remember anything from the coma.

#74

I was in a medically induced coma for about a month. I’m not sure how many of my hallucinations are from the coma and how many are from shortly after I woke up. I definitely wasn’t aware that I was in a coma or even in a hospital, it felt like a terrifying nightmare reality. At one point I thought I was mummified and being displayed in a museum. I could see my organs in jars around me. I didn’t deal well at all, I had to have my hands strapped down when I was awake but hallucinating because I kept trying to rip out my IVs (though I doubt I was strong enough to succeed).

#75

My father was in a actual coma for almost 4 weeks after a fall that turned into a brain bleed. After a coma a patient experiences PTA post traumatic amnesia. For everyday you are in a coma I believe it’s somewhere between 6-8 days that the person cannot make any memories. Even though he was in a coma and responsive to commands he did not recall anything he still doesn’t from the first couple of weeks after he woke.

#76

I was in a coma for a week and it was like a blink, I was at a street light, next second I’m waking up in a hospital a week later.

#77

I was in a coma for 12 days last summer. Just felt like any regular sleep tbh…

#78

I was in a medically induced coma for 2 weeks after becoming extremely ill. I didn’t have any awareness. I just woke up in the hospital feeling like I was starving and didn’t even know how long I was out.

#79

I had a really bad seizure, which wasn’t apparent to anybody but a neurologist walking by that moment at the ER. I was in an induced coma for three weeks. I knew nothing. It was months before I stopped hallucinating when I finally woke up. I knew nothing.