It's hard to say for sure whether people on life support can hear their loved ones and healthcare providers. Small studies suggest it's possible. This probably depends on the level of sedation and how severe any possible brain injury is.
They do hear you, so speak clearly and lovingly to your loved one. Patients from Critical Care Units frequently report clearly remembering hearing loved one's talking to them during their hospitalization in the Critical Care Unit while on "life support" or ventilators.
Although in the past patients were kept in an induced coma while they were on mechanical ventilation, these days recent research suggests that it's possible to keep patients comfortably awake and alert while they are on mechanical ventilation.
Nursing and other medical staff usually talk to sedated people and tell them what is happening as they may be able to hear even if they can't respond. Some people had only vague memories whilst under sedation. They'd heard voices but couldn't remember the conversations or the people involved.
Life support techniques can keep you alive until your body is functioning again. Life support replaces or supports a failing organ. Life support procedures include mechanical breathing (ventilation), CPR, tube feeding, dialysis and more. The decision to start, decline or stop life support is deeply personal.
There is no rule about how long a person can stay on life support. People getting life support may continue to use it until they either recover or their condition worsens. In some cases, it's possible to recover after days or weeks of life support, and the person can stop the treatments.
Due to the literature an overall survival rate of 25–80% after traumatic cardiorespiratory and following ECLS treatment is reported5,14,15,18.
While they cannot feel any pain, patients given general anesthesia before an operation are still vaguely aware of what is going on around them.
Causes of Delayed Emergence. In most cases, a delayed awakening from anesthesia can be attributed to the residual action of one or more anesthetic agents and adjuvants used in the peri-operative period. The list of potentially implicated drugs includes benzodiazepines (BDZs), propofol, opioids, NMBAs, and adjuvants.
The medicine may cause people to be too sleepy to open their eyes or stay awake for more than a few minutes. People cannot talk because of the breathing tube. When they are awake enough to open their eyes and move, they can communicate in writing and sometimes by lip reading.
Doctors usually advise stopping life support when there is no hope left for recovery. The organs are no longer able to function on their own. Keeping the treatment going at that point may draw out the process of dying and may also be costly.
If necessary, the patient remains on life support pending a second opinion. Hospitals are not legally obligated to keep brain-dead patients on life support. Most state laws follow similar protocols.
It can be confusing to be told someone has brain death, because their life support machine will keep their heart beating and their chest will still rise and fall with every breath from the ventilator. But they will not ever regain consciousness or start breathing on their own again.
Research suggests that even as your body transitions into unconsciousness, it's possible that you'll still be able to feel comforting touches from your loved ones and hear them speaking. Touch and hearing are the last senses to go when we die.
“First hunger and then thirst are lost. Speech is lost next, followed by vision. The last senses to go are usually hearing and touch.”
The heart continues to beat while the ventilator delivers oxygen to the lungs (the heart can initiate its own beating without nerve impulses from the brain) but, despite the beating heart and warm skin, the person is dead.
So, number one, first and foremost, the most important reason why your loved one is not waking up is simply because they have a brain injury, they have a stroke, or they have any other neurological conditions such as seizures, where they also get an anti-seizure medication, which often has a sedative effect.
It's best to have someone with you for at least the first 24 hours after general anesthesia. You may continue to be sleepy, and your judgment and reflexes may take time to return to normal. If you are taking opioids for pain, you won't be able to drive until you stop taking them.
IV sedation works quickly, with most people falling asleep in roughly 15 to 30 minutes after it's been administered. Once the IV sedation is removed, you will begin to wake up in about 20 minutes and be fully recovered from all sedative effects within six hours.
Anesthesia won't make you confess your deepest secrets
It's normal to feel relaxed while receiving anesthesia, but most people don't say anything unusual. Rest assured, even if you do say something you wouldn't normally say while you are under sedation, Dr. Meisinger says, “it's always kept within the operating room.
Conscious sedation is a combination of medicines to help you relax (a sedative) and to block pain (an anesthetic) during a medical or dental procedure. You will probably stay awake, but may not be able to speak.
For years anesthetists believed that there was no dreaming during anesthesia, yet, a portion of patients reported dreams after recovery from anesthesia.
Someone on a ventilator may appear to be breathing, but cannot breathe on their own. While the heart usually stops within 72 hours, it could continue beating for “a week or so,” Varelas said.
A ventilator is a life-support machine that helps you breathe if you can no longer breathe on your own.
"Pulling the plug" would render the patient unable to breathe, and the heart would stop beating within minutes, he said. But if a patient is not brain dead and instead has suffered a catastrophic neurological brain injury, DiGeorgia said, he or she could breathe spontaneously for one or two days before dying.