| I had been working in the trauma
unit at a local hospital for about a year. You get used to families thinking
that a "coma" patient is moving their hand or doing something that they were
asked to do. "Following commands" is what we call it. Often it's "wishful
thinking" on the families' part. Nurses can easily become callous to it.
On this particular night during visiting hours, my patient's wife came in. I had taken care of him for severam nights. I was very familiar with his care and what he was able to do. Actually, he didn't do anything. He barely moved at all, even when something would obviously hurt him, such as suctioning. His wife was very short, about 5 feet tall. She had to stand on a stool to lean over him, so that she could see his face and talk to him. She climbed up on the stool. I spoke to her for a few minutes, and then stepped out to tend to my other patient. A few minutes later, she came running out of the room. In an excited voice, she said, "Donna, he's moving his hand!" I immediately thought that it was probably her imagination, and that he had not actually done it on purpose. He had been there about a month at the time and had never made any movements on purpose. I asked her what had happened and she said, "I asked him to squeeze my hand and he did !" This led me to another train of questioning. "But, did he let go when you asked him to?" She said yes, that he had done exactly what she asked. I went into the room with her, not really believing that I would see anything different than I had always seen. But I decided that it would be better to pacify her than to make her think I didn't believe her or that she was somehow mistaken. She asked him to squeeze her hand, which he did. I said, "Well, ask him to let go." He continued to squeeze for a moment, so that when he finally did let go, I really still didn't believe that he had done it on Purpose. So, I said, "Ask him to hold up one finger." He did as asked. Well, hmm, this was starting to get my attention. I looked at him, his face still somewhat swollen and his eyes still closed. "Stick out your tongue!" I said. He did it. I almost fell on the floor. It was the first time I had ever seen anyone "wake up. " |