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Description of  Guide to the Comatose Patient: Expert advice for families and caregivers

Caring for a loved one in a coma is a distressing time, full of many questions, and often, not as many answers. Guide to a Comatose Patient is a first-of-its-kind book that steps into the shoes of the neurologist, to show the perspective of the staff caring for their loved ones — what worries us, how we think and intervene, what we can and cannot predict, and what we know as a certainty. In our hospital ICUs, there are more than a dozen comatose patients at any given point of time. Causes of coma can range from drug-induced coma—in which medications are used to calm the patient and allow the ventilator to work properly—to coma due to intoxication and coma related to a brain injury. No matter the reason, it can be a distressing time for loved ones. Guide to a Comatose Patient is a helpful guide for any family member or loved one confronted with coma. Author Eelco F. M. Wijdicks, M.D., Ph.D., a leading neurologist and attending neurointensivist at Mayo Clinic, begins each chapter by sharing helpful anecdotes from a career spanning four decades, before diving into the answers to commonly asked questions, such as: · What are the causes of coma? · When will the patient wake up and recover? · When is no recovery expected? · When should we consider organ donation? · What are the rates of survival? While there are many books on families’ experiences with acute traumatic brain injury and coma, Dr. Wijdicks offers an unusually candid conversation that allows a peek inside the minds of the doctors caring for your loved one. Having had many experiences talking to families having to make difficult decisions at a very difficult time, Dr. Wijdicks’s message is hopeful while remaining grounded in reality—a reality in which facts must dictate actions.