Diffuse Avonal Injury

[Chrslyn78]

My sister was in a car accident and has a severe diffuse avonal injury. The doctors are not very forthcoming with a prognosis at this point. It has been a week and she is on life support. I have read and read and read. The prognosis according to the internet is not great. My question is...what is a decent time frame to gage when my sister might have a chance of recovery or regaining consciousness and when have we progressed past the coma stage? I keep getting conflicting info on here. Some say after 4 weeks the chances of recovery are grim. Other sites claim up to 3 months. I dont want to be hasty at removing life support or prolong the enevitable either way if she wont recover. She probably would not want to be kept on life support if there is no chance...the question is how do I know when we have reached that point??!! Any help is appreciated! All the info I get at this point is each case is different. I get that. But surely there is some sort of time frame to know which way its going...

[tonicorbin]

how did things turn out for your sister-my son had diffuse axonal injury with several bleeds and swelling and damage to brainstem-but was at excellent trauma hospital.he was in coma for month and persistent vegetative for another month but then started to slowly wake up,even tho drs didnt think he ever would-so glad i didnt listen,as almost a year later i have my son back-yes,he s a different ,impaired son but he s still my son,and i m so glad he s here

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
I am sorry to hear about your sister. This is a very grim situation with almost no hope for a normal life even if the patient regains consciousness. On life support too the doctors can make out whether a person is responding, has any voluntary effort and whether the brain is taking signals or not. Hence push her doctors to reveal all information to you. You have a right to be informed. Most patients never regain consciousness and those who do lead a vegetative life. Since the brainstem remains intact, this is rarely a direct cause of death. The time frame when a person will regain consciousness, if at all will regain, cannot be predicted. Take care!