[RegulatorCountry]

In my understanding, swallowing anything is difficult to impossible for patients in a genuinely comatose state. That's why I asked, not that I hadn't read the article.

[skr]

In my understanding, swallowing anything is difficult to impossible for patients in a genuinely comatose state.

Apparently this patient was in the difficult but not impossible range. A coma can be mild, moderate or severe, which is determined by the patient's score from the Glasgow scale.