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Chronic Vegetative State (Waking Coma)
11 min read
Also known as: waking coma · apallic syndrome · vegetative state · coma-wake state · prolonged coma · prolonged loss of consciousness · coma vigile · persistent vegetative state · unresponsive wakefulness · unconscious waking state · brain-death-like state
Your Body Is Speaking
A person lies in a bed. The eyes open, the eyes close. The lungs rise and fall. The heart beats. And yet there is an absence that no one can put into words. No gaze that answers back. No hand that squeezes. No smile flickering to life when their name is spoken. The person you love is there — and at the same time unreachable.
Medicine calls this state chronic vegetative or waking coma. After a severe brain injury, prolonged oxygen deprivation, a massive stroke, or trauma, the deep brain structures are still active, but the cerebral cortex has gone silent. The body lives. Consciousness, as we know it, seems to have withdrawn — into a depth that is no longer visible from the outside.
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