For Anyone Familiar With Hospital Work

[Animeboye]

Hey guys, it's been awhile. I don't normally post as much on here these days but I still plan to come by from time to time. Anyway, as the title of this topic states, I was hoping I could get the expertise of anybody here who might have worked in hospitals or know somebody who does. Currently I'm writing another chapter of my Dragon's World series (on the last book actually) and in my story, the main characters find a boy who's been badly beaten to the point that he's left comatose. Now the boy wakes up a few weeks later however he can't remember anything about himself, his attackers, etc. when he was brought in, he didn't have any form of identification on him so they can't determine his real identity. I won't get too deep into the details because it would take too long to explain and I don't want to spoil anything. Anyway, these are my questions:

1. When a coma patient does wake up, what do doctors usually do following? What tests for instance do they normally perform to see how the patient is?

2. In the case of an amnesiac, theoretically, if the person in question was brought in without any form of identification on them (say in the situation of the boy in my book), what would happen to the person then? If they weren't able to find anyone who knew the person,  what would they do with them? See, my plan was for when the kid is released, the main protagonist of the series asks the doctor if he and his family would be able to look after the kid until they find his real parents. Would hospitals be allowed to do this? The protagonist's son (and adopted son) along with their friends were the ones who found the boy and had him sent to the hospital so would this influence a doctor's decision on that, possibly show the doctor that the patient, once discharged, will be in good hands? And if not, what would you suggest I do instead?

Thanks in advance to anybody who might answer. I've tried looking online but I wasn't able to find anything relating to what I asked.

[rhombus]

Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a clear answer to your second question through the documentation that I have available.  I will relay your query to the professor that teaches medical law on campus and see if I can find an answer for you.  Though, from what I can gather from my limited knowledge at this point, I imagine that legal guardianship proceedings would have to commence in court, and I strongly suspect there would be some fine print prevent a doctor from assuming that role on one of their own patients.

As for the first question, there might be signs of a return to consciousness prior to the person coming out of the coma, but they would probably not be at 100% mental function until some time later. As one person who lived through a coma explained on Cracked.com:

Television portrays a coma as a binary thing. You're either completely unconscious and show no response to any stimulus or you're awake and aware. This works nicely for the plot, so a character can be hopelessly unconscious until the right moment, when they wake up and stop the wedding. With a real coma, forget the asleep/awake dichotomy. There are all sorts of layers of consciousness a patient will swim through on the way to recovery. Doctors use the Glasgow Coma Scale to measure it, from a score of three (deep unconsciousness) to 15, grading you based on eye, verbal, and motor responses. You can interact with people, even walk around -- then go right back into further unconsciousness.

So in my case, at the start, I did look like I was sleeping. But as the weeks went by, there were times when I opened my eyes wide and looked at everything around me (high marks in eye response!), including into a camera lens. But I was still in a "coma."

During these times, family would show me pictures and ask me to point to specific people in them. To their delight, I was able to correctly do so while unconscious and not otherwise registering what was going on. Later, they'd even get me out of bed and take me up and down hospital hallways -- again, while I was very much still comatose. I'd just get back in bed and return to deeper unconsciousness.

One friend came to visit, but instead of finding me in bed like usual, I was standing in the hospital hallway, 6'2" and anorexia-thin. I was in a hospital gown with big, red, size 13 shoes, and stumbling along zombie-like with a nurse's assistance. Then I saw a wheelchair against the wall in the corridor and sat in it, passively refusing to walk any further.

Thus, tests on the Glasgow Coma Scale would be done periodically as would scans of brain function and EEG readings. Certain reflex tests would also be conducted ( like the Caloric reflex test, Pupillary reflext test, and corneal reflex test) in order to assess brain damage and damage to the cranial nerves.

[rhombus]

I just heard back from my friend, who is an attorney and she had this to say on the matter:

"Yes. There would need to be a legal guardianship proceeding. The court could allow the doctor to serve as the guardian, but the doctor won't be able to treat the boy anymore."

[Animeboye]

Wow, that's actually far more complicated than I was expecting. Still, I'm glad you were able to help me. Thanks rhombus. Although if I might correct your friend, it wasn't the doctor who was going to look after him. It was the main character of the series and his family. The main protagonist and the doctor are two different people. So with that in mind, I wonder if that might end up changing anything. Would he still be able to take care of the kid until they found his parents (quick spoiler, they won't but I don't want to go into any further spoilers) or would that not be possible since the only relation the protagonist and his friends and family have to the boy is that the main character's sons and their friends found him badly beaten?

[rhombus]

It should still be possible.  A closed-door judicial proceeding would commence where the protagonist could offer character reference witnesses in his or her favor.  Furthermore, considering the nature in which the child was found (his or her sons finding the child), a temporary guardianship would probably be granted if they were willing to take on that role.

[Animeboye]

Alright then. It's making a lot more sense now. Thanks again rhombus. My last question since it pertains to temporary guardianship: since the kid in this circumstance is also suffering from amnesia and doesn't have any kind of identification on him (there is an actual reason for this but like I said, it would spoil the boy's real identity), would Titus (the main character) and his family still be able to look after him for the time being, at least until the boy's memory came back? Would they have to give him a name to call him by in the meantime (this does happen regardless but I just wanted to know if he'd have to put that name on some kind of document)?

[rhombus]

No problem.  To answer your questions, they could care for him until he can be identified, or they are proven in court to be unsuitable as guardians. As for a name, a placeholder name would need to be given of some kind. I suppose they could provide that name if they wished.

[Animeboye]

Hey rhombus, thanks again for all your help. I just uploaded the chapter and left a shoutout to you as thanks in the description.http://animeboye.deviantart.com/art/Final-...s=1&ga_recent=1

[rhombus]

It's not a problem, I am just glad that I could be of some assistance.