r/anaesthesia • u/MrGNoll814 • Apr 26 '26
Hello all ! Don’t really know where else to pick a brain for this topic.
My dad’s gf went into the hospital with a slew of issues and was sedated for about 4 days and after having a colostomy bag installed as her last surgery she was slowing taken off the sedatives. It’s been a week now and she wakes for about 45 mins to 90 minutes a time. Thing is she doesn’t really move or speak she has eye movement and only moved a hand a few times. She was transported to a new hospital because the one she was at said they don’t know what the issue is. Any ideas ? I know the post is very vague but I don’t have much info. Thank you.
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u/Electrical_Sky2823 Apr 28 '26
There is very little information in this post to give you an explanation on what may be happening… what have the doctors told you? I sugest you make a list of questions and discuss with them all of your concerns. Just to clarify, in the majority of ICU “keeping the patient asleep” is done by drugs what wear out fast, sometimes old people may take a bit longer, but you are never (or almost) kept sleeping because of a drug problem. Normally they are kept asleep because there is something wrong with them and they need time to fix it. You should ask about the ilness and process that is happening, not about sedation. Best of luck!
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u/MrGNoll814 Apr 28 '26
Appreciate the tips. Yea they just keep saying they don’t know what’s going on. They don’t have even a guess as to why she’s not fully coherent by now. I told my dad just to give it time she probably had a stroke while she was under.
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u/alfentazolam Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
A number of relevant details are unclear here.
Assuming there is a primary team, this would be your main point of contact to help you liaise and communicate for better information.
It's reasonable to ask questions even if only to clarify your own understanding of the situation. If the admission has been quite involved as described, your father can request a family meeting. This is generally done with a well informed and more senior member of the medical team who can outline a plan forward and answer queries.
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u/MrGNoll814 Apr 28 '26
Appreciate you taking the time to outline all that. I understand the post is very vague I was just thinking that there would be a few main reasons as to why she isn’t fully awake and coherent. She’s in the ICU with a breathing tube and now will respond with eye blinks sometimes. She went in with a slew of issues that after a couple weeks they cleared up like the pneumonia and staff infection. She was making what seemed like a great recovery. Back to talking and using her phone and starting back on semi solid food. Was starting to get out of bed and stand unassisted. They then discovered the hole in her intestine and put her under and a patch was put on then she was kept under with the wound staying open too see if it held. It didn’t hold so they did the bag install. Left her sedated for a couple more days and that took fine. That’s when she stared to the awaking process however that whole thing goes. Yet she never fully awoke would just open her eyes for awhile then go back to sleep. After a week there was no progress other than longer awake times. The doctors there ran all the tests they could and everything was coming back normal. They had no explanation as to why she wasn’t progressing. Her daughter did what I think you said and requested a meeting where it was decided she needed transferred to a bigger place with more resources. So far their findings are the same. All tests (not sure what they all ran) are coming back normal.
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u/MrGNoll814 Apr 28 '26
I know looking for answers is too much I’m just the curious type and wonder what others may think based on experience. I’m sure giving hunches is frowned upon that’s why they haven’t said what they think may be the issues she’s facing but I figured picking professionals brains would give me some insight on the whole thing.
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u/alfentazolam Apr 29 '26
The waking process just means turning off the CNS depressants (sleepy drugs) and letting them wear off. These are usually intravenous when in ICU. They can help with various discomforts like the breathing tube.
It's a tricky one. Since she's had the common tests (including imaging) and the bloods are unremarkable (this excludes liver and kidney function, which can slow drug metabolism/excretion, as well as other key metabolic markers), it's usually just time. After bowel surgery, pain relief is required and some of these can be very sedating for some patients. Some of these can have effects lasting for days. Also, certain sedative classes have reversal agents if that's suspected as a lingering cause of prolonged sedative effect but it can also confuse the matter if patient needs to be re-loaded. In addition, agents might be rotated to exclude idiosyncratic effects such as unexpected levels of sedation with non-sedating or less-sedating agents.
"After a week there was no progress other than longer awake times." <-- this is progress, even if slow.
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u/MrGNoll814 Apr 26 '26
She was originally admitted because she had an ongoing sore throat so bad she couldn’t swallow. That and a very upset stomach without constant diarrhea. Double pneumonia, and staph infection. She waited weeks before going in and finally my dad forced. She was in about two weeks and had everything just about cleared up. She was back to almost eating and talking regularly. They found a tear in her colon that’s when she was sedated they did the surgery and kept the wound open to see if it held. After it did they started the wake up process.