Coma Recovery: Physical Strength

When my mother was 56 she was in the hospital for several weeks with a life-threatening infection. She has a bad case of rheumatoid arthritis and did not move out of her bed for weeks. She was fed with a tube, as someone in a coma would be. Once she recovered enough to leave the hospital she spent 2 weeks in rehab working her muscles so she would have the strength to stand and walk.

I would say that your character would take a week to recover well enough to get along in her regular activities, although she may get tired easily for a while after that.

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It depends entirely on how long the patient is in a coma.

Muscles start to lose definition after 3 days. Once muscles begin to lose definition, you begin to lose strength, but it's a slow, gradual process. After three months, for example, you may notice yourself straining to lift something that was relatively easier "not too long ago".

Coma patients, by definition of their particular problem, don't exactly get a lot of exercise, but their muscles don't atrophy any faster than normal people. However, because they are not getting exercise for a long period of time, they may actually lose the ability to use certain muscles. For example, it's not unusual for a coma victim to be unable to walk after regaining consciousness.

However, it definitely depends on the length of the coma. Less than a year, and the patient can reasonably expect to be back to normal in about the same amount of time (6 month coma = 6 month recovery period). Longer than a year, it will depend on the treatment they received. You may have seen movies where coma victims have their legs lifted, bent, and put back down by orderlies. This is a basic exercise so that extreme atrophy will not occur. If the muscle DOES succumb to extreme atrophy, it will (generally) never be 100% again, so most hospitals or convalescent facilities try to avoid that with gentle exercises for the coma victim.

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Thanks, this is very helpful. I wanted the character to be out for more than a month, but was worried about the recovery time...my plot can afford a month or two of recovery -- but not six months or a year.

Thanks again!

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I think Guardian Phoenix gave a pretty good answer. I'd like to add to it though that it could also depend on what other injuries were sustained during "the accident." I would think that any accident resulting in a coma would likely give other injuries as well which may add some time to the recovery(and depending on if you want it to or not, could also be something that acts up periodically making it harder for her to hike and such).

Though there was no real "coma" involved (he was asleep for a long time, but he could wake up, they just didn't let him because he would be in too much pain and too frightened/upset by all the medical equipment), my dad was in a terrible auto accident last year, and spent three months pretty much completely unconscious, then four more months awake, but so sick he couldn't engage in any meaningful physical therapy. After all that, he spent another five months in rehab at a nursing home, and just came home this week.

It was really an eyeopener for me as to how weak a person really becomes when they have to stay still for so long. I don't want to blab on at length here, but please message me if you want more accounts of all the little things I never would have thought would become difficult that were for him when he finally did wake up.

From what I remember from a documentary I once watched, theres not just physical strength. Unlike what the movies show you, people who have been in comas for more than a couple of days do not suddenly wake up and have full cognative function.

The synapses and all that have not been used as well and so can break down. They have little awareness, cannot control muscles, speech, sight. They are virtually vegetables and this is incorperated into the rehabilitation.

Thats why people who have been in comas for more than a year never fully recover their speech and movement.

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Not to "steal your thunder" Joanarc4 , but I've got a similar question. :^)
My character's in an OD coma , and was in a car accident just before he "slipped under." I want him out for at least three weeks, though I may stretch it longer, depending..
He's 16 and skinny, bruised with a dislocated shoulder. My questions are sort of ... would his shoulder heal normally, with absolutly no movement? would going into a coma from an overdose just totally fry his brain? do coma patients wake up suddenly or do they just kindof... merge back into life? Is three weeks long enouph to require rehabilitation? what about pressure sores? how does the hospital deal with hygene? what kind of machines and stuff would he be hooked to? Sorry. The more I think about it; the more questions I come up with.

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I’d like to piggyback on this thread, as well- one of my characters will be in a coma for two to three months (no brain injury or broken limbs, etc.- it’s a long story), so it seems she’ll have to go through physical therapy after she wakes up. According to Guardian Phoenix, it should take her another two or three months, but I have to wonder: Would she still be in the hospital during that time, or would she be living at home and coming in every day or every other day or whatever? What sort of exercises would she be doing?

Greetings

I had a nurse tell me once that I lost 25% of my strength every day of hospital bed rest. I you think about how kittensish weak you feel after being confined, she had a point.

For therapy depends, Some hospitals are set up to do therapy and some have therapy specialist organizations attached. is Sister Kenny institute

Often as a cost saving, patient is shifted to nursing home for therapy services and out of full service hospital. . NH would be choice if there was nobody to help out at home or if patient was too badly dinged to send home

I lived at home and did therapy at something called Courage Center since thy had a Therapy Pool allowing exercise in a warm water environment - I see lots of stroke and accident victims esp spinal in the pool with their physical therapist specialist walking running and doing isometrics etc against he water resistence but also partly supported by water

I think it can go in many directions but I guess the lesson I learned is it takes far longer to regain a semblance of your 'fitness" after a convcalesence and takes more work than I had anticipated

Enjoy the journey

WarLord

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Heh, I'm feeling very unoriginal just now -- but does anyone know how long someone can be a coma before being declared legally dead? Also, what sort of cognitive issues would be expected after a coma of a few months (less than four)??
Thanks!

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