LOC, Coma, etc?

[DaffyDoc]

I know this is going to sound very naive, but I am naive and ignorant at this stage in my ED volunteering. I am not experienced yet and have A LOT to learn. So, this patient came in (trauma) and had CHF. She looked as if she were asleep. Was she experienceing LOC? In a Coma?

A patient before her had cardiac arrest and the staff members were performing CPR. His eyes were open and looking at the ceiling. Totally unalert. Was he in a coma or something? I do not know yet if he died after I left that day.

I am just trying to put all of the puzzle pieces together.
Thank you.

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[12R34Y]

I know this is going to sound very naive, but I am naive and ignorant at this stage in my ED volunteering. I am not experienced yet and have A LOT to learn. So, this patient came in (trauma) and had CHF. She looked as if she were asleep. Was she experienceing LOC? In a Coma?

A patient before her had cardiac arrest and the staff members were performing CPR. His eyes were open and looking at the ceiling. Totally unalert. Was he in a coma or something? I do not know yet if he died after I left that day.

I am just trying to put all of the puzzle pieces together.
Thank you.

Hard to say what the CHF trauma lady was experiencing without actually seeing her, but LOC can mean two things in my experiences.

"What is the patient's LOC?" In this instance LOC (stands for Level of conciousness) meaning: alert? responds to pain, responds to voice etc...

"The patient fell and had a positive LOC." In this instance LOC stands for (loss of conciousness). meaning they were unconcious briefly. This in my opinion is the most commonly used, but varies.

The cardiac arrest patient was "dead". Meaning he did NOT have a pulse and was NOT breathing (dead). However, peoples eyes may appear to be open even when they are dead or unconcious because it takes muscles to actively work to close your eyes shut completely. So, if you are dead your eyes naturally want to go about half closed.

You would probably benefit from taking a CPR/first aid course of something just to familiarize yourself with some of the more common terms and situations.

good luck!