Britt Jones
A woman detailed exactly what it was like for her while being in a coma for two weeks.
It's not often someone recounts their experience of being put into a medically induced coma, but Claire Wineland, from Texas, US, talked candidly about it all.
The 21-year-old activist and author experienced a coma ten years ago after a surgery ‘went bad’, which led to an infection in her lungs at the age of 13.
At the time, Claire was battling cystic fibrosis, something she was born with, which is ‘a rare inherited genetic condition that causes breathing and digestive problems’.
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It is currently incurable, as per the NHS, and causes ‘thick sticky mucus that can affect your lungs and digestive system’.
For Claire, this meant that she had to undergo four hours of treatments every day to manage her illness.
She was an inspiration, and set up the Claire Place Foundation, which helped families and those with the condition to receive support.
Having fought against the odds, at the time of her coma induction, she was only given a one percent chance of survival, but awoke after 16 days, per CNN.
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During her battle, she detailed her life, its challenges, and her hopes and dreams.
Above all, she did it candidly and with humour.
Talking about her coma experience, she began her YouTube video by sharing: “So, I was in a coma....Great conversation starter, I know.”
She explained she was placed in the coma and put into a ‘sleep state’, so the doctors could provide her with life saving measures.
While you might think this ‘sleep state’ involves being unconscious, Claire revealed you can actually hear everything going on around you.
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Except, the way it appears in your mind is totally different.
She said: “You hear, you're aware of, you kinda know what's going on...But it goes through this weird, like, 'filter' thing in your brain...and by 'filter' I mean it's going through the drugs...and then, it turns into something else once it, like, actually hits your consciousness.”
She revealed she had ‘a lot of people who'd come to visit and sit by my bed and talk to me’ such as her step-mum, and nanny.
"I heard what they were saying, but then in my head, we were in, like, a girls...camp, like one of those, like, log cabin camps...”
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Claire shared it appeared to her as if all of them were ‘gossiping’ about another girl, but she was really just absorbing the conversation they were having by her bedside about a nurse who had said something earlier.
In her dreamlike state, she imagined herself replying to the women, and being an active participant in the conversation.
She said: “In my head they were like gossiping, and I was, like, in on it, too, I was talking back to them, but I wasn't actually talking...and sometimes this messes me up so much when I'm going and looking back, like, on the whole experience.”
As for physical sensations, she was aware of those too.
She recalled a time she was tilted in bed during a ‘Trendelenburg’ position, which tips a person upside down. She believed she was in a hammock.
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In this hammock, her foot had gotten caught on something, which meant she could not release herself from the downward position.
"So, there I was, like, upside down and, like, swelling like a balloon at that point, and in my head, I was, like, going in this weird, like, hammock thing...and then I remember I got, like, my foot caught in the hammock, so I was, like, hanging upside down.
"I was, like... 'This is so weird, why can't I move?', like, I should just be able to pull myself up, but then logic doesn't really work very well.”
She also detailed vivid Alaska hallucinations that was caused by hospital staff providing her with ice packs to fight a high fever she had during the coma.
Except, to Claire, she associated the cold with Alaska and began to believe she was really there.
"I remember just, like, sitting there and just, like, staring at the most beautiful scenery ever for hours and hours and there'd be like a little deer off in the corner and it would be freezing cold but I didn't care.”
However, she realised after that she had been ‘getting ice pack'd the whole time’.
She also revealed that the scenery would change depending on who was talking to her.
For example, if it was a parent, she would be in a beautiful location and feel safe, but if it was a nurse or stranger, she would feel lost and strange.
Sadly, Claire passed away in 2018 due to a blood clot just one week after receiving a double lung transplant at the age of 21.
A documentary called Claire was made in her honour, detailing her impact on the world around her and those struggling with cystic fibrosis.