What It's Like To Be In A Coma

The twilight zone between life and death is a mystery that doctors can solve

- Lauren Cahn

WHEN T RENEE GARNER was 32 weeks pregnant with her son, she was rushed to the hospital with extremely high blood pressure, W her foetus in distress. Intravenous medication lowered her blood pressure, and her baby was delivered safely before being taken to the neonatal intensive care unit. But when Garner went to visit him there the next day, she still wasn't well, and she began experiencing leg cramping so severe it left her weeping in the hospital. Then everything went black-for three days.

Doctors determined that Garner's coma was the result of a severe electrolyte imbalance-her sodium had dropped precipitously-caused by the trauma hospital, whisked into emergency surgery, and then put into a medically induced coma for a week to allow her brain to heal. The doctors told Beaver’s husband that she was unlikely to survive the injury and that if she did, she might be severely disabled.