Not a medical brain, but the scariest thing I ever experienced:
I had a motorbike accident when I was 17 and must have hit my head badly when some car (not going fast) drove into my right side (probably) while I was not going fast (quite sure). I was wearing a helmet.
That was around half past five in the evening, in December, so it was dark.
I remember an endless night chopped into pieces, a strange place I could make no sense of, people around me I did not recognize, me always asking "what happened", "where am I", yet never receiving an answer.
Later I learned that one of the people had been my mother, and that my questions must have been answered dozens of times. Another was my best friend who I did recognize and who could calm me down a bit. I remember nothing of that.
I awoke around nine in the morning and recognized that I was in the local hospital which I knew well enough, and that it was winter outside. Someone had said something about an accident, and after I had checked that I was physically OK, I mostly worried about my motorbike. When I tried to remember anything, I found that in my last easily accessed memories it was summer. I had some skin scraped off my knuckles, a bruise on my chin, and was otherwise OK enough. I took me about three days to piece my memory back together, but I happened on forgotten details for weeks, and I never remembered the accident.
So:
To my best guess, I was up (and agitated as hell) probably shortly after they got me into the hospital which was 500 metres from the accident site. Maybe even in the ambulance? Consciousness is not either/or. It has degrees.
But I was completely out of it for more than 12 hours. Even if you allow for most of them to have been sleep, it took the staff at least 30 minutes to find my mother and get her there, and my best friend arrived later than her.
I did not even have much of a headache, and my eyes were just fine. (I had a concussion when I was eight and I had trouble reading for about half a day because the letters seemed broken.) I was confused and worried but very relieved that I was physically OK.
I might have been nauseous and lost my supper. That had also happened the first time I had a concussion, where I did not lose consciousness, awareness or memory.
Five days after the accident they let me out of the hospital. Two weeks after I was still easily exhausted and fatigued. One month after I was quite well again, also mentally: I was preparing for final exams (in math, chemistry and geography) and passed the exams two months after the accident.
No lasting damage, except for some months in my life which have always been a bit vague in my memory.
no subject
I had a motorbike accident when I was 17 and must have hit my head badly when some car (not going fast) drove into my right side (probably) while I was not going fast (quite sure). I was wearing a helmet.
That was around half past five in the evening, in December, so it was dark.
I remember an endless night chopped into pieces, a strange place I could make no sense of, people around me I did not recognize, me always asking "what happened", "where am I", yet never receiving an answer.
Later I learned that one of the people had been my mother, and that my questions must have been answered dozens of times. Another was my best friend who I did recognize and who could calm me down a bit. I remember nothing of that.
I awoke around nine in the morning and recognized that I was in the local hospital which I knew well enough, and that it was winter outside. Someone had said something about an accident, and after I had checked that I was physically OK, I mostly worried about my motorbike. When I tried to remember anything, I found that in my last easily accessed memories it was summer. I had some skin scraped off my knuckles, a bruise on my chin, and was otherwise OK enough. I took me about three days to piece my memory back together, but I happened on forgotten details for weeks, and I never remembered the accident.
So: