[Coma and its impact on the process of being and living: implications for nursing care].

This is a hermeneutic phenomenological study based on the Van Manen's framework, that aimed to distinguish the meanings of the experiences lived in the state of coma and its impact on the being and living process. It was developed with four participants, three males and one female. Based on the analysis of the information three themes were identified: the unexpected as reality; the singularity of the modified states of consciousness, and the transformation of the being and living process.