What are the odds to end up in a coma in which you're still conscious from suicide attempts?

[Sunshine]

The other day I saw video of a girl who was in a "coma" for 7 years or so after she fell on her head. She couldn't move anything, no one even knew that she was "awake" but she heard everything. Basically trapped in her body for all these years. This really terrifies me. What are the odds to end up like this from things like Nembutal or other substances?

 

[gingerplum]

The other day I saw video of a girl who was in a "coma" for 7 years or so after she fell on her head. She couldn't move anything, no one even knew that she was "awake" but she heard everything. Basically trapped in her body for all these years. This really terrifies me. What are the odds to end up like this from things like Nembutal or other substances?

Got a link? I'm curious to know more.

The ONLY way to end up like that from any type of narcotics OD is if you're "rescued" after you've been oxygen deprived for several minutes but haven't gone into complete respiratory/cardiac arrest yet. It's a pretty short window.

In the case of that possibility, you'd be brain damaged somewhere on the spectrum of completely brain dead to essentially recovered to baseline, maybe with a residual tremor or other effect. It all depends on the time elapsed.

 

[Sunshine]

Got a link? I'm curious to know more.

The ONLY way to end up like that from any type of narcotics OD is if you're "rescued" after you've been oxygen deprived for several minutes but haven't gone into complete respiratory/cardiac arrest yet. It's a pretty short window.

In the case of that possibility, you'd be brain damaged somewhere on the spectrum of completely brain dead to essentially recovered to baseline, maybe with a residual tremor or other effect. It all depends on the time elapsed.

It was this video:

Now I don't know if it's legit and they didn't just make it up for an interesting sorry but I think the kind of state she describes has been proven to exist if I don't remember wrong. Super terrifying.

 

[Sweet emotion]

Got a link? I'm curious to know more.

The ONLY way to end up like that from any type of narcotics OD is if you're "rescued" after you've been oxygen deprived for several minutes but haven't gone into complete respiratory/cardiac arrest yet. It's a pretty short window.

In the case of that possibility, you'd be brain damaged somewhere on the spectrum of completely brain dead to essentially recovered to baseline, maybe with a residual tremor or other effect. It all depends on the time elapsed.

If it's all night I'll be fine right? I should be dead. You told me I had enough meds to kill a heroin addicted elephant. I don't want to wind up a vegetable. I just want to die.

 

[Raggas]

I don't know what to say other than that simply would virtually never happen to anyone wanting to kill themselves. Interesting thought but not happening.

 

[gingerplum]

If it's all night I'll be fine right? I should be dead. You told me I had enough meds to kill a heroin addicted elephant. I don't want to wind up a vegetable. I just want to die.

Yes, you should be 100% fine. HOWEVER, the one exception applies to everyone: the possibility of being "rescued" and resuscitated while you're still alive but your brain has sustained anoxic damage.

The other day I saw video of a girl who was in a "coma" for 7 years or so after she fell on her head. She couldn't move anything, no one even knew that she was "awake" but she heard everything. Basically trapped in her body for all these years. This really terrifies me. What are the odds to end up like this from things like Nembutal or other substances?

So, I watched the video-- both parts, actually, because I got sucked in-- and it was, indeed, what I initially suspected: an extremely rare condition known as "locked-in syndrome."

Possible causes of locked-in syndrome include:

• Poisoning cases – More frequently from a krait bite and other neurotoxic venoms, as they cannot, usually, cross the blood–brain barrier
• Brainstem stroke
• Diseases of the circulatory system
• Medication overdose[examples needed]
• Damage to nerve cells, particularly destruction of the myelin sheath, caused by disease or osmotic demyelination syndrome (formerly designated central pontine myelinolysis) secondary to excessively rapid correction of hyponatremia [>1 mEq/L/h])[10]
• A stroke or brain hemorrhage, usually of the basilar artery
• Traumatic brain injury
• Result from lesion of the brain-stem

Locked-in syndrome - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

You'll notice the Wikipedia article does list overdose as a possible cause, HOWEVER, their own article lacks either support or citation for that claim.

I looked at a few dozen cases that I could find, and almost all were exclusively due to brainstem stokes; there were one or two exceptions for traumatic brain injury secondary to motor vehicle accident.

I could only fine one documented incidence of LIS secondary to drug use, and that described a man who developed LIS after being hospitalized for respiratory support and agitation. He later became paralyzed, and although imaging of his brain was not discussed, I suspect he also sustained some type of brainstem stroke injury, caused from the effects of the cocaine revealed on tox screen.

Long story short, this is the kind of story that is often sensationalized because it's exceedingly rare, and it also plays on our deepest fears of not being able to move or scream, like something straight out of a nightmare.

LIS is the subject of both the book and the movie The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, for anyone interested in exploring this further.

Maybe @blackflag1 will chime in, but as far as I can tell, your odds of LIS secondary to a drug OD are probably about on par with getting struck by lightning, or winning the lottery.

 

[Rachel74]

Depends on your method. N is mine so I won't end up in a coma.