Coma Stimulation

I got to do something really cool today. Multisensory stimulation for disordered consciousness, also known as coma stimulation. We have a man on our unit who is in a "coma" after an organ transplant mishap. There are different levels of consciousness, which is why coma is in quotations. This man is actually not in a coma, he is in a vegetative state. Surprisingly, a vegetative state is a better level of consciousness than coma. It is not, however, the greatest state to be in.

I've never done multisensory stimulation before, but went to a presentation on it at our national convention. The presentation was very informative and had demonstration videos. The unit that I work on is not a brain injury unit by any means, so I felt sad that this man was getting no kind of arousal therapy. Hence, my eagerness to try multisensory stimulation.

Though my man didn't magically wake up, which is what all the nurses thought would happen, he did show some promising signs of arousal. Multisensory stimulation doesn't have much research behind it yet, so the techniques can seem a bit strange. Have you ever scrubbed a patient with a ScotchBrite pad or pricked their toes with a seam ripper? Yeah, me either until today. But, it was pretty cool to see the responses those techniques elicited. I'll keep you posted on his progress.

If any of you speechies would like a copy of the presentation, just let me know!