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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Suggest Treatment For Drug Induced Coma Patient After Suffering A Brain Hemorrhage

I have a question regarding my friend who is currently in the I.C.U. Long story short he was in a motorcyle crash and sustained many injuries, including a brain hemorrhage. He s been in there for just over a week now and he s in a drug induced coma, and has a ventilator to keep him breathing. He has been confirmed to have pneumonia, but the doctors have reassured us that this shouldn t be a problem due to them being prepared for it. He has successfully responded to commands such as move your arms, wiggle your toes, etc, but they re keeping him in the drug induced coma because he gets combative. They ve attempted to remove the ventilator, but they run into complications each time. Here s where my question is: The doctors say they re unable to remove the ventilator, if we did he would expire. We can t say for how long, but for the time being he is dependant on the ventilator. They won t tell us anything more than that and are very hesitant to communicate anything. (I understand why, they don t want to open themselves up for anything lawsuit related) so I m asking here to hopefully find a medical professional that won t be in jeopardy of consequences for being truthful. I have no knowledge or education in medical matters so I m really in the dark on what to expect. How bad is this? Could0 it be brain function related? I understand there s no real way of knowing and I ve probably not provided enough information, but I just want a ballpark opinion. Thank you in advanced for taking the time to read my question and provide any insight.
Wed, 14 Apr 2021
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General & Family Physician 's  Response
Hi,

A drug induced coma puts a person into deep state of unconsciousness, which allows the brain to rest and thus decreasing the swelling of brain. This decrease in the swelling of brain results in less pressure on brain and hence, avoiding the brain from more damage. Length of drug induced coma will depend on the time of desired results. This period may be as low as 12 hours as well as it may be as long as up to a few weeks and even a few months in some cases.

The additional life supports like ventilator etc. will also depend on the clinical condition of patient, including reflexes to coughing, ability to breathe without support of ventilator etc. To be precise, in your case it does not seem possible, to predict the period of drug induced coma or length of stay on ventilator precisely. It will all depend on the clinical condition of your patient.

Take care. Hope I have answered your question. Let me know if I can assist you further.

Regards,
Dr. Satnarain Bansal, General & Family Physician
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Suggest Treatment For Drug Induced Coma Patient After Suffering A Brain Hemorrhage

Hi, A drug induced coma puts a person into deep state of unconsciousness, which allows the brain to rest and thus decreasing the swelling of brain. This decrease in the swelling of brain results in less pressure on brain and hence, avoiding the brain from more damage. Length of drug induced coma will depend on the time of desired results. This period may be as low as 12 hours as well as it may be as long as up to a few weeks and even a few months in some cases. The additional life supports like ventilator etc. will also depend on the clinical condition of patient, including reflexes to coughing, ability to breathe without support of ventilator etc. To be precise, in your case it does not seem possible, to predict the period of drug induced coma or length of stay on ventilator precisely. It will all depend on the clinical condition of your patient. Take care. Hope I have answered your question. Let me know if I can assist you further. Regards, Dr. Satnarain Bansal, General & Family Physician