What can cause a coma?

Comas can be caused by different things, including:

• a severe injury to the head that hurts the brain
  seizures
  
• infections involving the brain
  
• brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen for too long
  
• an overdose of medicine or other drugs
  
• a stroke

When one of these things happens it can affect the brain's cell work. This can hurt the parts of the brain that make someone conscious, and if those parts stop working, the person will stay unconscious.

Other causes are: consumption of a very large amount of alcohol, diabities, morphine, shock or hemorrhage. Treatment varies depending on the cause. Overall, in coma cases, damage to the brain's "thinking, and life support centers" have occurred. When damage has occurred, bleeding in the brain, swelling and congestion of the damaged tissue is present. In extreme cases, brain swelling is so great that portions of the brain must be forcible squeezed out of the skull. This dead or "dying" tissue is then surgically removed. An alternative to squeezing portions of the brain out of the skull is to saw off the skull and place it in a cold storage to better accommodate the swollen brain.