Me and my mum know someone abroad who is currently in an induced coma for the total length of a year (the person has been in it for numerous months now, don’t want to put any further details so as not to possibly highlight the person or hospital). It makes perfect sense to us that this would massively help with ME symptoms as your body is at complete rest. The person is very hopeful this will massively help and we have our fingers crossed for them
Note - I think it’s a year. It may be a shorter length of time but they gave the impression of a year and they have been in it numerous months already as mentioned above
The body isn’t at complete rest in a coma, there is a lot going on related to adverse effects and the body coping with coma. Respiratory drive is often lost which means a patient would need mechanical ventilation.
Gut motility is very much reduced which can cause issues.
Hypotension usually means the patient will need drugs to maintain cerebral perfusion pressure.
Hypokalemia or low potassium often results which can cause a whole cascade of events — heart issues etc.
The heart can be adversely affected to the point of heart failure.
Bed sores of course.
A patient would need a catheter which increases the risk of bladder and kidney infection.
The brain may be asleep but the body is fighting to maintain homeostasis. And there is also the risks of having a high level of barbiturates in your system constantly. This is why most medically induced coma’s last a few weeks. Six months is rare and one year is unheard of.
I have read reports of people in medically induced comas saying their brain is still registering the surroundings at times and they experience the coma as one long never ending dream.
It amazes me that people accept that having someone in a coma, with automated monitoring and automated feeding, costs significantly more than nothing.
But then it amazes me that it apparently costs hundred of pounds a week for someone's granny to watch soap operas or that keeping 3 people locked in 8 by 10 cell 23 hours a day can cost over £2,000 a week.
Someones' making a lot of money somewhere.
The only automated monitoring is vital signs, brain waves and intercranial pressure. A person in a medically induced coma is usually kept in an intensive care unit and requires a lot of one to one care. A comatose patient requires constant turning about every three hours, catheter bags have to emptied, bloodwork is required very often, nutrition provided usually through a feeding tube, diapers changed, bed baths ... . Care for a coma patient runs about 2,000 to 4,000 dollars per day if in an ICU.