Diabetes Type 2 Support Group

I do not know much about diabetes. My grandma is currently in the hospital in a coma. It is the 4th day. I wanted to explain what I know because I'm wondering if anyone has heard of this or knows of anyone who this has happened to. From what I've read, my grandma was in a Hyperosmolar Hyperglycemic State, previously termed hyperosmolar hyperglycemic nonketotic coma (HHNC).

My grandma has had uncontrolled diabetes for awhile. She is in her early 70s and was not property taking care of her diabetes (and not allowing anyone to do it for her). She did not eat properly and actually hardly ate at all. She also has bad neuropathy and was in severe pain much of the time. She has been bed ridden for years due to the pain. But she was able to use a wheelchair herself for short times.

Wed morning my grandpa found her unconscious in the kitchen on the floor near her wheelchair. She was taken by ambulance to the local community hospital where she had a seizure. She was life flighted by helicopter to a trauma center where she had another seizure. Her blood sugar was over 1000. At first they thought she had a heart attack (at the first hospital) but I think they were more unsure of that later on. Her potassium was low. It was bad.

They were able to get everything under control. Her heart rate, her blood sugar, everything became stable, however she has not woken up. From everything I've read about hyperglycemic comas, once the blood sugar levels are brought to normal, the patient wakes up. I've read about hypoglycemic comas (from LOW blood sugar) causing brain damage and long term comas, but I've been unable to find anything like that online about hyperglycemic comas causing the same.

They did a CT scan at the first hospital to see if there was any stroke, or blood on the brain, or swelling or anything like that and everything looked good. At the trauma center they have drawn spinal fluid to look for infection and see if that could have gone to the brain but that came back good. They did an EEG yesterday to monitor brain waves and had it on her for 24 hrs. I have no idea how these work and the nurses were not allowed to say. But in the beginning (they sedated her at first for this) all the lines on the monitor were jumping up and down but only about 1/4 inch. Then she'd move a little and they'd all go crazy for a bit. But today, all the lines on the top of the screen were going up and down really high and low (indicating a lot of activity I presume). They downloaded the data and wanted to hook it up for another 24 hrs. But the one nurse said it wasn't flat, and she's seen some that were totally flat so I presume that since all the lines were moving, her brain is working. I dunno, I'm not a dr, so I'm just guessing here.

They are still doing more and more tests trying to find out the cause, if it's some kind of infection or west nile virus (she's been bedridden like I said so that's highly unlikely). But she did have Shingles for about a month before this.

It seems like she gets a bit responsive here and there but you have to be there at the right time. Today they told us her condition was the same but when we went to see her, she opened her eyes and turned her head and squeezed her hand, her eyes were moving back and forth, she moved her head from side to side, it looked like she tried to blink her eyes on command (although not completely), she shrugged her shoulders. But then she went back to sleep. Later, when other relatives saw her, she was not responsive at all.

Basically, has anyone heard of someone going into a diabetic coma for high blood sugar and not waking up once the sugar was under control? I guess I'm just wondering if the diabetes could be the cause of the coma or if it's something else. It's strange to me that she'd have super high blood sugar AND another problem that can both cause a coma at the same time.
Posted on 08/18/12, 06:22 pm