Coping With Coma

My mother was diagnosed as being braindead. She was having trouble with her heart; her legs swelled up and she had a hard time breathing. They were treating her with potassium. I thought she would be okay. She went to play bingo (which she loved so much) then came home, and unfortunately went to bed and never woke up again. I got a phone call in the middle of the night by my dad saying something was wrong with mom, she had fallen down in the bathroom and jammed the door. He called 911 and the medics came and had to break down the door. They gave her lots of shots ( I hear she was not breathing). They revived her to where she was breathing on her own but unfortunately she was not responding. The doctors said she had gone without oxygen too long and that she wouldn’t recover. She was on a ventilator for one week and my family had to make a decision to take her off the breathing machine as the doctors said she would never come out of the state she was in. She was in this coma for a week, the longest week I’ve ever been through and once they took her off the machine, she died in less than 10 hours. This happened in 1994 and I remember it like it was yesterday. After all of this, I went to school to become a registered nurse so that I could help others. IF I ONLY KNEW THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW , I might have been able to help her. I had a really hard time understanding this and to this day wish I could of helped her. She was 58 years old. I know how hard this is for families. The nurse’s were asking my father if he wanted to donate organs and he was thinking she would come out of this and it made him so angry. We didnt understand this at all. My advise to anyone is to talk to your MD and have them explain things to you in terms you can understand.

I just wanted to thank you for this site it is very informative. Thank you for letting me share.