From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcomaco‧ma /ˈkəʊmə $ ˈkoʊ-/ noun [countable, uncountable] MIsomeone who is in a coma has been unconscious for a long time, usually because of a serious illness or injurybe in/go into/come out of a coma He went into a coma and died soon afterwards.COLLOCATIONSverbsbe in a comaHis son had been in a coma for three and a half years.go into a comaMum went into a coma and died soon afterwards.slip/lapse/fall/sink into a coma (=go into one)Brett slipped into a coma from which he never awakened.relapse into a coma (=go into a coma again)She was making progress, but then she suddenly relapsed into a coma.come out of a coma (also emerge from a coma formal)Alice wanted to be there when he came out of his coma.adjectivesa deep comaAfter the accident, she spent ten days in a deep coma.an irreversible coma (=a permanent one)He had been in an irreversible coma since the disaster.coma + NOUNa coma victim (=someone who is in a coma)There are various techniques for helping coma victims to regain consciousness.a coma patienta long-term coma patient
Examples from the Corpus
coma• He was unconscious by the time he arrived at hospital in Sanford and remained in a coma until he died.• Into a coma, most likely.• It was more, she blinked her eyes, as if roused out of a coma.• Perhaps a coma, if worse came to worst.• The 59-year-old star needed two life-saving operation to remove blood clots and was left in a deep coma after brain surgery.• And sometimes no purposeful movements result, in which case we talk of deep coma.• He was alert and neurologically normal with a Glasgow coma score of 14 on admission.• A woman is in love with a married man, whose wife is in a permanent coma.Origin coma (1600-1700) Modern Latin Greek koma “deep sleep” 