Others have spoken about the dreams that occurred while being in their comatose state.  I too had some VERY wild dreams.  After finally waking up, and being able to understand things that happened to me, the dreams made sense.  Wild as they were from the morphine , they pieced together nicely with actual occurrences that happened around me.  I will try to explain the dreams that I had and at the end of each, let you know what happened in "real life" that may have triggered them.  Strap yourselves in!!!

Med lab: 

I was in some sort of military medical experiment facility.  The room where I found myself in was freezing cold.  There were observation windows like those in surgical theaters (if that is what you call them). The walls were made of stainless steel.  The tiled floors sloped from the walls to the center of the room with a huge floor drain in the center.  I was positioned along one wall. There was a stainless steel table in front of me to the left and another to the right.  The one on the left had a huge block of ice setting on top of it.  Inside the ice were body parts.  Legs, arms, torsos etc.  The table on the right had body parts sewn together. Not in the proper anatomical positions, but feet sewn to arms and the like.  There were med students at the table laughing and joking on what kind of weird thing they could do next to the body parts. 

This lab was evidently deep under the ocean surface.  For some reason my father entered the room with me and stood close by.  We made a deal with the head student there to get us out . His mother was a top ranking officer in the navy, and could have us choppered out, only problem being getting to the surface to be transported.  The next thing that I can remember is my father holding me very close in his arms telling me that everything would be ok.  The staff had us enter a chamber that would fill with water and equalize the outside pressures.  We entered and before I knew it we were floating up towards the surface.  Me wrapped tight in my fathers arms floating slowly upward.  When we broke the surface, I could hear the helicopter hovering above.  We climbed inside and headed for dry land.  Reaching land the helicopter set down, and I was awarded lifetime medical coverage from the navy, along with a monthly retirement check the rest of my life. 

This dream correlated with things that happened while in the coma.  My dad was there at Grand Rapids when they wrapped me in aluminum foil to keep me warm for the flight to the University of Michigan.  He went with me as they wheeled me up towards the flight area.  He kept telling me that "Everything would be ok".  The helicopter in the dream was probably triggered by the actual helicopter waiting to transport me.  I was in the Submarine Service from 1977-81 and I guess since the lab in the dream was an experimental military one I figured I should be afforded the right to have the benefits after going thru the mess down there!

Beach:

This dream took place at Clearwater Beach Florida. I am from Florida now living in Michigan.

I was walking down the sidewalk adjacent to the beach.  I could feel the sand that had blown from the beach onto the sidewalk as I walked.  I reached a dead end in the road.  Above me was an overpass that lead to an island.  There was a channel that ran under the overpass.  The water was crystal clear.  A cop came by and told me not to stay after sunset because they were having problems in the area at that time of day.  I told him no problem. I then jumped into the water and eventually found myself swimming underwater without the use of any air tanks or other apparatus.  The colorful tropical fish were flourishing everywhere.  I swam up to an old billboard that had been discarded in the channel that advertised "Treasure Island" with pictures of pirates and their ships. It was getting dark, and I turned and headed towards shore.  All of a sudden someone came out from behind the billboard and attacked me.  He pulled me into deeper water where no one could see us and to my amazement began to pull out all of my teeth.  After they were all pulled, the guy replaced them with bent up pennies. He then took me behind the billboard to an entrance to something. 

Inside there were large spans of metal that traversed over the channel we had just been swimming in.  There were people up on these spans taking pictures of the channel. They were working there taking pictures to see if there were any changes in the channel formation from the tide and water currents.

The man who attacked me had now become my boss.  He gave me a camera and sent me up there to do the same as the others.  While up there I recognized a friend of mine Richard.  How he got there, I have no idea. Richard was friends with the guy who nabbed me underwater.  All I know is that when the work was done everyday, he would go home, but I would be stuck there with a bomb type device around my ankle. This device would explode if I crossed certain points inside the area.

I became very upset at the way I was being treated so to retaliate, I purposely went beyond the boundary point hoping to blow up and take them with me.  This however was not the case.  I ended up blowing myself up.  All that was left of me was a "head". No body, just a head on the floor looking around at everyone scrambling.  The explosion caused a major leak in the building and people were running to get out before it flooded.  I then see my mom walking slowly thru the hallway calling for me.  I could hear her but I could not talk.  She would say "Bobby, where are you?" Over and over again. 

I think me being able to breath underwater without aid was due to the ECMO.  This miracle machine takes blood out of the body, removes the CO2 and adds O2, then re-warms it and pumps it back into the body. The lungs themselves do not do the breathing for the patient. They are set with the ventilator supplying 6 breaths per minute, just to keep them moving.  Perhaps my dream reflected that I didn't NEED to breath on my own, for the machine was doing it for me.

The friend in the dream Richard, was someone that I worked with in Florida at a mapping company.  He and I put our notices in the same week to move on to new jobs.  Everyone at work called him a traitor for going to the competition.  I think this is why he was a friend to the one who attacked me.

The last part is a significant one because in almost all my other dreams I remained being just a head. Not being able to move on my own power.  This perhaps is from the paralyzation drugs.

Restaurants:

I had MANY food dreams.  I again still just a bodiless head would be in a restaurant eating.  Somehow I would be able to eat, but with no arms etc, I'm not sure how I did it.  Anyway, I would be there for hours until the staff would come to me and tell me that it was time for them to close up for the day. I would just sit there, and not budge.  The staff would sit all around me making subtle hints for me to leave, but being just a head I couldn't go anywhere.  Finally they would call the police and they would have to come and pick me up. They would come in, tuck me under the arm, and haul me off.

These food dreams were probably from the break room being the next room over from where I was in SICU.  They would have food brought in like pizza, Mexican, etc.  Those strong spicy foods could have triggered the restaurant dreams.

Funeral:

This dream involved me being a "head" again.  I was at the door of my garage looking up at a friends parents.  He a veterinarian, was taking pictures of me.  I heard a conversation between them about my funeral, and memorial services.  The Vet then picked me up and tucked me under his arm and off we went to take a picture at another location.  We ended up at his house.  He placed me on the rail of his powerboat and stepped back and clicked a few pictures.  He told his wife that this would be a good picture, knowing how much I loved to go diving and skiing with them.

Again I was tucked under the arm and this time toted to a pool. The back yard of the house was my own, however the pool was not.  We had an above ground pool, this one was in-ground.  All my friends were there.  They were joking, and laughing, dancing, singing.  Just having a great time.  I was placed on a rubber float in the pool.  I could see everyone and hear everyone, but nobody could hear me.  I was at my own funeral "party".  People would talk about me in the past tense, remember when we did this...and when he did that kind of talking.  Somebody then decided that I would make a great electrical conductor for an amplifier.  They connected wires to me and to the pool somehow, and then someone else picked up a guitar and started playing.  It would shock me every time the guy played.  No one would hear me yelling, but each time I did yell, the sound of the guitar would get distorted. 

Perhaps another paralysis effect being a "head" again.

For here or to go?:

This dream was definitely the worst of them all.  I found myself in the back of box van in an alley way. Seems like it was a New York type place by the buildings around me.  Inside with me were a man and his wife, who were deli owners in town.  Today happened to be Easter in the dream.  The couple inside the van were preparing what they called "Kosher" meals for  people who would buy them on the black market.  I found myself laying there in the van, not being able to move.  (paralysis again I reckon) The man began to sharpen a knife.  I could see the slick silver blade reflecting light as it passed back and forth across the steele.  He then proceeded to start cutting me up. He cut my stomach, and pulled out my liver, and told his wife to boil it down, that it would make good gravy.  He kept taking pieces of my body, one after the other. Again I was left with just a head.  I watched as they cooked and decorated all of my parts. Hearing the cops coming, they started the van and moved to another location.  They finished cooking me, and placed me in those aluminum hot to go boxes.  Then began delivering me to families so they could feast on me.

This again could have been triggered from food within smelling range of my bed in the SICU.