A captivatingly authentic documentary about four people’s journeys after coming out of traumatic brain injury comas, Coma is both informative and heart-wrenching.
When you think of medical dramas on television, there tends to be a balance between real medical possibilities and stretching the truth. I have a pet peeve about when patients wake up from major surgeries without an ounce of pain, as if they’ve just awoken from a deep sleep. If you’ve ever had surgery, you know that isn’t how it goes, and the same goes for comas. It isn’t as black and white as they make it look on TV.
Coma is a documentary that follows four different people (Al’Khan, Roxanne, Sean, and Tom) for a year after each has woken up from a coma after experiencing a traumatic brain injury. Each has the support of family, and everyone is hoping that their loved one will get better. But the question really is, what does “better” look like?
I have never experienced such an intimate and genuine documentary around the subject of comas, and when it was over, all I could think was how grateful I am to the individuals and families involved. This film does more to educate the public about the complexities around this medical state than anything else I’ve ever seen.
The first major determination that doctors are looking to diagnose after a person wakes from a coma is whether they are in a minimally conscious state or in a vegetative state. Going into this film, I thought a vegetative state was one where a person was laying in bed with their eyes closed, unable to respond at all to anyone around them. That is not the case, and this movie does an excellent job of describing and displaying the differences in patients.
It also touches heavily on how incredibly slow the healing process from a traumatic brain injury can be. Some people regain most of their abilities and memories, and some don’t. Some regress to different ages (behaving like a 12 year old when they are 21), and others get combative – not out of intention, but because that is seemingly a stage that is part of the process.
Coma also displays how unbelievably difficult the situation is for family members. They have such little control, and all they want is for their loved one to be okay, no matter what it takes. There is desperation and hope and suffering, all wrapped up in the complete unknown of what the future looks like.
This is a brilliant documentary that is a gift to us all. And while I’m sure medical research has grown quite a bit in the last 18 years since filming, the education and information that this film provides to the public is invaluable. I just hope that these four people and their families have all found peace these many years later.
Runtime: 101 minutes
Motion Picture Rating: PG
Languages Spoken In The Film: English
Should You Watch It? Yes, definitely
Did I Cry? Nope
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
Available: Free on Max and Hulu, to rent on Prime Video, or may be available for free on other streaming platforms
When you think of medical dramas on television, there tends to be a balance between real medical possibilities and stretching the truth. I have a pet peeve about when patients wake up from major surgeries without an ounce of pain, as if they’ve just awoken from a deep sleep. If you’ve ever had surgery, you know that isn’t how it goes, and the same goes for comas. It isn’t as black and white as they make it look on TV.
