I'll be handling Christy's question in two parts. Part one today.
Christy Asks:
A bullet grazes my hero's brain. He's taken to the
hospital where he has an intracranial hematoma.Would he be in a medically
induced coma after this? If so, for how long? When do doctors decide to take
someone out of a medically induced coma? What would a victim be like after the
fact? Sedated? When would they know the extent of the injuries?
Jordyn Says:
It depends. Let’s start from the top.
A bullet grazing someone’s brain. Okay—well in order
for it to even hit the brain it has to come through the skull. So, it’s not
going to be a minor injury considering that. Not like a bullet grazing your
arm.
An intracranial hematoma means you have bleeding on
the brain but you haven’t really specified the area. For instance, epidural
hematomas occur between the dura (which is a tough membranous covering) and the
skull. These are almost always taken to surgery.
In a subdural hematoma the
bleeding occurs between the dura and the arachnoid layer. These are not always
evacuated by surgery. It depends on their size. Intracranial bleeding can mean
a lot of things—that the bleeding is just within skull (which includes the two
things I’ve mentioned) or in the brain tissue itself. Bleeding within the brain
tissue itself is much harder to deal with.
Would he be in a medically induced coma? It depends.
The decision to put someone in a medically induced coma is more based on
whether or not the doctors think the brain will swell as a result of the injury and
not necessarily because there was a bleed. For instance—epidural hematomas are
generally taken to surgery and evacuated without the patient needing to be put
into a coma.
If they think they see a significant amount of
swelling of the brain tissue then a medically induced coma is more likely. A
patient is generally placed into a coma through the period of peak swelling
which is generally 48-72 hours post injury. The patient gets a special monitor
(a bolt) that monitors their brain pressure (or ICP—intracranial pressure).
After that peak period of swelling comes and goes a decision will be made to wean the patient
off their sedation. The pressure may stay high. If the pressure stays high the
patient may proceed to brain death (caused by herniation or hypoxia related to
the pressure), or significant brain injury, or recover. It may not be known for
several months what the outcome is though generally if a patient is going to
suffer brain death they will do it in that 48-72 hr window. Past that, if they
live but the pressures have been high—more a vegetative state or significant neurological
impairment. If pressures have stayed lower—the patient may recover okay.
I have seen miracles, though, too so this is not cut
and dried.
As far as knowing the extent of injures—they’ll know
that pretty quickly based on CT imaging. However, what won’t be known is the
affect on the patient. People can have the same exact brain injury—some
die—some fully recover so there is a lot of writing leeway here. It may not be
known for years how the patient will recover or what their lives post-injury will look like.
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Christy Barritt is an author, freelance writer and
speaker who lives in Virginia. She's married to her
Prince Charming, a man who
thinks she's hilarious--but only when she's not trying to be. Christy's a
self-proclaimed klutz, an avid music lover who's known for spontaneously
bursting into song, and a road trip aficionado. She's only won one contest in
her life--and her prize was kissing a pig (okay, okay... actually she did win
the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Suspense and Mystery for her book
Suspicious Minds also).
Her current claim to fame is showing off her mother,
who looks just like former First Lady Barbara Bush. When she's not working or
spending time with her family, she enjoys singing, playing the guitar, and
exploring small, unsuspecting towns where people have no idea how accident
prone she is. For more information, visit her website at: www.christybarritt.com.
