Quote Originally Posted by dolphin View Post
So, people are actually conscious during comas, but just can't respond to the outside world?
Not everyone is conscious during a coma, but not everyone is unconscious during a coma. It's highly variable.
Quote Originally Posted by dolphin View Post
But, everywhere I read defines a coma is a state of unconsciousness. Maybe by unconsciousness everybody means unresponsiveness.
It can also be defined as extreme unresponsiveness, which in a lot of cases is interchangeable with unconsciousness because they both appear the same.

Medical diagnoses aren't quite as cut and dry as doctors would have you believe. Sometimes they're literally just guessing. When a person is comatose they will perform an eeg (electrical test of the brain) to help determine cause and depth of coma, but tests can't tell you everything and there's no way to know their level of awareness with any certainty until they wake up and tell you. In nursing it's common practice to communicate with a comatose patient like you would with a fully aware patient for this very reason.