AllMovie

While the subject of brain injury is challenging and sometimes frightening for doctors as well patients and their families, few such maladies are as misunderstood as the coma. Many factors come into play when a patient falls into a coma, and it's often difficult to predict what will happen if and when they regain consciousness. Filmmaker Liz Garbus explores the human side of a difficult medical situation in Coma, a documentary that follows four patients at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center's Center for Head Injuries. Each has suffered a coma following an accident of some sort, and as each struggles to regain the life they knew before, their doctors and loved ones must wrestle with tough choices and unhappy realities. Produced for the premium cable television network HBO, Coma was screened in competition at the 2007 Silverdocs Film Festival, a competition founded by the American Film Institute and The Discovery Channel.