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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Can A Person Be In A Coma Without Brain Damage?

Hello - My mother-in-law had a severe heart attack over 1 week back. She was unconscious when she was rushed to the hospital, and when she got there, her heart stopped but doctors were able to right away revive her. While the revival was a miracle, unfortunately, follow-up tests showed that she was in a coma and that her heart performance at 20%. Doctors did an Angiograph because they suspected blockage was to blame for both the low heart performance and for the coma. Indeed, they found blockage and cleaned out as much of it as possible. After the procedure her heart performance increased some, but only about 7.5 % so they decided to do a 2nd one . The 2nd time around the doctors were able to clean the same % of blockage. Now her heart is working at about 35% but she still remains in a coma. Doctors are saying they checked for brain damage and found none which is the reason why they think the coma state is directly related to the blockage. They recommended 1 of 3 treatments, either robotics surgery, open heart surgery or injections to try and bring bring her out of the coma. My husband told the doctors to go with the injections for now. I tried to find information on these injections but couldn t find anything solid! I have a couple questions....Are these injections a good idea and what is their success or failure rate? Should my husband instead have picked open heart surgery which may have taken care of both the blockage and the coma? He already rejected the robotics surgery because it is too expensive and very new on the market. Is it really true that a person can be in a coma without brain damage? If this is true then is it possible that her body went into shock and shut it self down to protect her? Your professional advice is much appreciated
Fri, 14 Mar 2014
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Can A Person Be In A Coma Without Brain Damage?