What Is the Glasgow Coma Scale?

My father was in a motorcycle accident 3 days ago and in a coma since. He is 60 years old. He was scored at a 3 upon getting to the hospital and yesterday an 8. He has diffuse axional injury. I am praying all day every day. He has so many broken bones but of course the brain injury is the concern. He was on the highway when the oil leaked and he lost control of the bike crashing into a jersey barrier After researching the brain injury i haven't been able to stop crying. But since coming here and reading so many positive stories I am building my hope up and putting faith in my dads recovery. I don't care what extent of help he needs going forward I will give everything I can for him. I just want to see him wake up and be given the chance at life again. God bless all of you and thank you for sharing your stories. If anyone would like to talk and discuss anything at all or just to support one another please email me. Tasha02421@gmail.com

My brother had a acute basal ganglia and is currently in GCS4 stage. He collapsed while normal office working. He has no medical history for his 55 years of life and has a very healthy body. Want to know his chances of recovery. Doctors says only miracle can help. But we are in a small place in India and don't know if to trust the doctors here completely for it. Please suggest.

If a patient's GCS is resulting in a 12... would this be grounds for informing the Dr. or is it more likely to be a 'monitor patient closely' level?

I am currently sitting beside my daughters hospital bed, for yesterday she came off a quad bike going slowly around a corner. Initially she had a gcs of 3 for 15mins, which came up to 8 for a further 15 then 13 after that.  She has a torn ligament c1&2 and bruising to her frontal lobe, but she is going well.  God must have sent an army of angels to protect her.  So to all the mums and dads out there sitting beside beds there is hope!  Thank you to the authors of this article, you helped me better grasp what happened and how to explain more succinctly to health workers.

Thank you for sharing!!!

When my son was born he was 16 weeks premature. I happened to know the exact day I got pregnant because his father came home for 24 hrs before being deployed again. He died 2 weeks after I found out I was pregnant. The letter I wrote him telling him the good news never made it in time for him to even know that we were expecting. Our son was born exactly 24 weeks gestation. He was 1lb 7oz and only 12 1/4 inches long. He was diagnosed with a stage 4 inner ventricular hemorrhage to the entire left hemisphere of his brain. Basically the entire left side of his brain was bleeding and coveted in blood clots. The Dr said that he was too weak and little for surgery and that since he was already on life support that the likely ability of our son even making it through was less than 10%. The Dr said that I should stop life support and let him go. He said that even if my son made it that he'd never walk, talk, play, understand, or in any way be a normal child. That night I had him christened and I prayed like I'd never prayed before. My son is now 11 yrs old, almost 5 feet tall, 80+lbs, and he walks, talks, and plays just like a normal child. He is autistic and has a few medical issues but to look at him you'd never know his struggle. He's happy, healthy, and he saved my life during a time that all I wanted to do was give up. So, Dr's, science, medicine...they aren't always right. It's opinions based on the best guess of the medical facts that they have on hand at the given time. Dr's are people. Not God's, not magicians, they cannot alter the outcome of life. All they can do is try. Go with your heart. I'm not sure if it was really God that saved my sons life or if it was luck or destiny or fate but it doesn't hurt to believe and it doesn't hurt to pray. I hope that our story helps someone who is reading it. I hope it gives you comfort and the hope to withstand another day. Every second of life is precious but promised to no one. Live in this moment. Love as hard as you can. Stay strong no matter the battle you are facing or the outcome that will inevitability follow. Only the hardest battles are given to the strongest warrior's......

To the person who commented on 11/28/15, and probably others, the tests can be strong indicators, but the numbers aren't the final word as with any diagnosis. A rotation or visits to the unit will let you know if it's for you or not. I've had quite a few minor TBIs and a moderate in the mid range from a car accident in 1990 that I shouldn't have survived. What initially helped me the most were the nurses in the ICU. Their compassion and caring helped me heal more than anything else. I helped them because they rarely had a patient not in a coma. They were so excited to be able to interact with a patient and I will always be grateful for the care I received. I've been a tax-paying, highly functioning member of society since then. It's not always easy and some adverse effects will probably never go away, especially memory and emotional problems, but that's manageable given how bad it could and should have been. I also have a friend that received a far more serious TBI than I did and she's also beat the odds that she was given. My sister was a neuro nurse and said it was incredibly difficult because so many never recover. Just like any other unit, some can do it and some can't.

Thank you all for sharing your stories. I am a graduate nurse preparing for my board exam and I have really wondered if this profession is the right place for me. I have also wondered about the Neuro nursing. I've heard stories of it being full of 'no hope' situations. Your stories breath life into me and make me feel there is a hope after all and that if I do my part, a miracle is possible. Thanks!

I am undergoing a bridging program which will enable me sit the Canadian Nursing exam. I must say that i am well informed by the article i read here an they are very simplified. Keep up the good work.

I went into a public hospital and was administered an incorrect medication about 15 times the manufacturers recommended dose for a first time patient and was put on Life Support in an Induced Coma for 2 days with a GCS of 10. Can someone tell me if this rating is permanent or does it get better over time please?

Hello... My name is Lisa I am the survivor of 28 days on the vent. My score was a 4. I do have a brain injury but my recovery was much easier than expected. Miracles really do happen.

My father had a RTA and taken to hospital with GCS of 10 & I.C hematoma, sooner it dropped down drastically to 3. We shifted him to the best hospital in city. Doctors put him on ventilator for a day and half, then we were told that he had stopped breathing himself and is respirating completely with the help of ventilator. They performed numerous tests on him and after 2 days they declared him "brain stem dead". Was there any chance of recovery if he would have kept on ventilator for some more time? We consulted 5-6 doctors, best of best, but nobody gave us any hope and we were told that the damage to the brain was permanent and irrireversable and there is no point of keeping him on ventilatory support. I just wanted to know whether or not there was any chances of survival or recovery? What is the difference between brain dead and coma?

I'm a tbi coma survivor. I was in a coma for a week. I lost my memory, voice and the ability to function when I woke. I started over again from learning how to sit. Doctors can never guess where I came from today. I'm now a college graduate and yoga instructor. I still have my daily struggles. I have dry eyes after the accident and suffered an undiagnosed soft tissue injury that I am still seeking treatment for, but i have come a long ways. So never give up and never quit! Doctors never told me I'd be where I'm at, but I am.

I was rated at 3 after a car accident on my way to start and early shift in an emergency ward where I worked. I had major breaks through my head face neck and back lost total hearing in my left ear and partial in my right I also fractured my left temporal and the left orbit which caused a tennis ball sized haematoma which they feared had done irreversible damage. They expected me to be in a vegetative state if I ever regained consciousness and I would never walk again. Well after a lot of blood sweat tears physio on my left Bell's palsy. People are shocked when they hear what I went through because even though I had major injuries (eye haematoma subsided in hospital) it was all internal so it was very hard for people to understand I had suffered a TBI because they automatically think you would be a "vegetable" even though it ended my medical career, I went on to study forensic psychology criminology behavioural studies/criminal behaviour and loving it. So yes going from nearly dead to now walking talking chewing!! And a second chance at life, the brain really is an amazing cell.

Thank you for this information. Doesn't it just wind you right up when people criticize articles when clearly they have no idea?... Person below, the lowest score you can have is 3, so evidently your GCS did not "bounce from 1-3". 

Where can I read the article that was mentioned here?  My son is a missionary in the Philippines.  A little girl who is a child of their friends was run over and drug down the road by a man who was texting while driving. They say her neuro score went from 6 to 5.  We could stand to read something that would give us hope.

thank you 

Thank you very much for this article,I have reproduced it to help mentor my nursing team in Northern Nigeria

Robert Simiyu

thx for the information, i m the brain injury patient, it let me know about the scenario when i was coma....

May I have permission to cite this article? 

Thank you.

By the way, I like your newsletter! Very interesting!

M Schreiber

You can just give use this attribution: Written by the BrainLine team. Used with permission from BrainLine.org, a WETA website. www.BrainLine.org. Thanks!