Quick Tip for Families in ICU: Waking mom up after head injury and craniotomy

https://intensivecarehotline.com/blog/quick-tip-for-families-in-intensive-care-waking-mom-up-after-head-injury-and-craniotomy/

Quick Tip for Families in ICU: Waking mom up after head injury and craniotomy

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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.

So, today’s tip is about, “Waking my mom up after craniotomy and head injury and induced coma.” So, waking someone up after an induced coma can be a big challenge even without a brain injury. And it is often even more challenging with a brain injury and a craniotomy.

What often happens in those situations, patients are heavily sedated, they’re often paralyzed. They usually have ICP (Intracranial Pressure) and CPP (Cerebral Perfusion Pressure) monitoring. I’m not going into too much detail today, but basically, they have continuous monitoring of their intracranial pressures, also known as the pressures in the brain. And that can often take many days, sometimes even weeks of deep sedation, paralysis, and then waking them up can be a big challenge depending on the nature of the brain injury, depending on has there been any significant brain damage? Is it reversible brain damage? Is it irreversible brain damage? So, those are all questions that come into play in a situation like that.

And then, it’s often not linear when patients wake up after an induced coma and brain injury. It can be very slow. Patients can be very confused. They might be aphasic. They might not be able to speak. They might not be able to understand. They may have a complete loss of memory. It can be very, very challenging. And what can help in situations like that is just being very patient and talking to those patients a lot and having family around will certainly help to have familiar faces and familiar voices around. And again, it can be a lengthy process.

And even I have seen after patients come out of ICU, after they’re more awake, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re fully oriented. They may not be oriented at all. They may still be disoriented. They may be confused, agitated, sometimes even aggressive. It really depends. It’s not a one size fits all. You got to be very patient and persistent as well. You can’t just give up because someone is not waking up.

What often helps is mobilization as well. If they can be mobilized, physical therapy. Again, bringing some familiarity to them, whether it’s family, whether it’s pictures, whether it’s music they like, all those things will help to get your loved one waking up after induced coma, craniotomy, and brain injury.

That is my quick tip for today.

If you have a loved one in intensive care, please contact us at intensivecarehotline.com and call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or send us an email to [email protected].

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Also, if you need a medical record review for your loved one in intensive care or after intensive care, please contact us as well. We can help you with that.

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Thanks for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I will talk to you in a few days.