Can a familiar voice help someone in a comma? could coma patients remember anything they heard?
can they dream? (and if they could… could they remember a dream they had?)
I know it’s stupid, but it puzzles me why they can’t be forced into coming back… would slapping or shocking them wake them up?
Can you have nightmares in open-chest surgery?
I don’t know yet.
Can you have your cake and eat it, too?
Why don’t you go to your local hospital’s ICU and try slapping or otherwise shocking the comakids, comateens, comagrownups, and coma-elderly.
Let us know what your research turns up.
For a more serious answer - nobody seems to know for sure. The following link has a pretty good article:
Search for coma +medical +dream for other online information.