Keeping a body part immobile for more than a few weeks seems to make it pretty useless and requires a lot of physical therapy to recover. Joints stiffen up, muscles atrophy, etc. Something as simple as a sling is bad news, and a lot of modern treatments for injuries are aimed at getting you mobile ASP.
So what about taking this to the extreme? When someone is in a coma unmoving for months or years, does the medical staff takes some kind of preventive action against this? Or are they just useless when they wae-up, which means “House” lied to me?
Not exactly my area of expertise, but at least I’ll move you to the top of the page…
People in the hospital who are unable to move themselves are turned and repositioned periodically to help prevent pressure sores, which are quite dangerous because they can become infected if severe enough.
I’m pretty sure that they also have physical therapy come in and do some basic movements (bending and stretching the patient’s arms and legs, for instance) if the patient’s condition will allow it and if they are unable to move themselves for long periods of time.
The simple answer is that people usually in a coma of the length stated in your OP (longer than a few weeks) rarely, if ever, “wake up” in the usual sense of the word.
Those that do, including those in medically induced comas for mechanical ventilation, need extensive PT and OT upon waking. It often takes years. We write for PT and OT consults on nearly all of our ICU players.
Usually, for those in such a a state for more than a couple of weeks get discharged into skilled nursing facilities, nursing homes, or at least inpatient rehab facilities.
Patients who are immobilized for long periods may also need splints applied to the wrists, ankles, or other joints to minimize contractures. This is because the strength of flexor muscles and extensor muscles rarely matches perfectly, so the elbows will flex, the wrists will curl, and the feet will pulled gradually into a ‘tiptoe’ position. This assumes that the injury that the person suffered has left them with some native muscle tone, however minimal.
These sorts of contractures do not resolve if the patient wakes up - they will require exhaustive PT/OT to correct, if not surgery to release the shortened muscles/tendons.
I was in a coma for about 2 weeks 15 years ago. Let me tell you that its not AT ALL like its depicted in films and tv. After I woke up, I was in bed for about 3 weeks 24/7 until I started Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy. It was probably 2-3 weeks before I could walk unassisted for short periods of time (say 5 minutes). About 3-4 months before I could walk for short-medium lengths of time (say 20-30 minutes without a break) about 6 months before I was ‘normal’. I was gymnast before and I was very flexible and I never got all of my flexibility back.