Coma and Traumatic Injury

Noriko's brain injury occurred when she was seven years old. While playing in the schoolyard, she was accidentally hit in the head by a ball. She became unconscious and went into a coma that lasted for three days.

While her speech and intellectual abilities quickly returned, the right side of her entire body was seriously affected. Her right leg and foot were rigid, and as a result she walked poorly. She had little use of her right arm, and no use of her right hand, which became increasingly tight.

Glossary of Terms

Traumatic Brain Injury

Any injury to the brain sustained after birth. Such injuries include blows to the head, lack of oxygen from suffocation, smoke inhalation or near drowning, hemorrhages, brain tumors, infections and penetrating wounds.

In 1982 Dr. Edward B. LeWinn published the groundbreaking book Coma Arousal. His work has been carried on by The Institutes under the auspices of Dr. Mihai Dimancescu, noted neurosurgeon and member of The Institutes research team.

Here, in a lecture presented to the 1994 World Organization for Human Potential, Dr. Dimancescu recounts the long journey he has taken to gain acceptance of coma arousal techniques locally, nationally, and internationally.

Let me introduce you to these three people. Thomas, Sandy and Vasso.

INITIAL SUMMARY

Coma, due to brain injury, is not an isolated phenomenon, but is instead an integral part of the unbroken continuum that extends from death and profound coma at one end of the spectrum to very mild brain injury and normality at the other.

Confronting a Coma

The dictionary defines coma as a state of unconsciousness from which the patient cannot be aroused. At The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, coma is defined as a state of unconsciousness from which the patient has not yet been aroused.

There is a world of difference between these two definitions.

Modern science has changed so many things in so many ways. Who knows which one of us would long since have died of the plague or small pox or a hundred other devastating killers had it not been for the knowledge that permitted us to prevent these horrifying conditions that wiped out thousands of human beings in days of old.

The advanced technology of the last few decades has greatly improved our ability to save a baby at risk. Thousands of profoundly brain-injured babies who would never have made it twenty or so years ago now survive.