Posted on 11/15/2011 4:16:35 PM PST by wagglebee
NEW YORK, November 15, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A study published in one of the most respected medical journals in the world this month has found that many “vegetative” patients are in fact fully conscious and aware.
Experts at the University of Western Ontario conducted the experiment by applying an electroencephalogram (EEG) machine, a common mechanism for measuring brain waves, to a large group of unresponsive patients suffering from brain injuries.
The New York Times reported that, when researchers asked “vegetative” patients to imagine squeezing their hand into a fist or wiggling their toes on cue, they found the brain waves of about 20 percent of such patients responding in precisely the same way as healthy patients.
The research was anticipated by several smaller-scale studies and anecdotal evidence from experts showing the “vegetative” diagnosis to be unreliable at best. A lengthy article published in Discover Magazine in July followed the years of research by two leading experts who say they have witnessed such patients - some of whom had only a “shadow of fluid” in their skulls where the brain should have been - reconnect with the outside world again and again.
But the hurdles for advancing treatment may be higher than science alone can traverse. Dr. Joseph Giancino, director of rehabilitation neuropsychology at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, told Discover of the level of prejudice he witnessed against the most helpless patients at one prestigious hospital where he presented his findings.
“The head of trauma thanks me and in a very jovial manner says, ‘In my day, the term for these patients was jellyfish.’ And he laughs and moves on,” he said. “What do you do with that?”
While one of the researchers of the Lancet study concluded that the experiment was “a strong sign of our inability to correctly diagnose people in the vegetative state,” some disability advocates say the diagnosis should be abandoned altogether, arguing that it is a tool routinely used to discriminate against the cognitively disabled.
Bobby Schindler, brother of Terri Schiavo and founder of the Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Network, said in response to the Discover article that the “[persistent vegetative state] diagnosis needs to be eliminated by the medical community.”
“Not only is it highly flawed and unscientific in its diagnosis (misdiagnosed upwards of 50% of the time), but it is dehumanizing to the individual being labeled as a ‘vegetable,’” said Schindler. “More importantly and most disturbing however, is the PVS is being used as a criteria to kill those with cognitive disabilities as it was used to deliberately kill my sister, Terri.”
Terri Schiavo was diagnosed with PVS in 1991, a court order forbidding her food and fluids and leading to her infamous death by dehydration, despite video and photos showing that she was alert and responsive.
Exactly, the culture of death has fabricated a diagnosis to use as an excuse to kill the disabled.
Freepmail wagglebee to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
many “vegetative” patients are in fact fully conscious and aware.
This is why they are antigun, the sole mean of protection for the elderly and disabled.
back in the 70’s I worked with a patient who came to us to die with no brain activity (according to the doctors). He eventually walked out of the hospital.
Thank you for posting this. They label people in such a way that they can justify killing them. No doubt they have more labels ready.
BTW - am under the weather and still dealing with computer problems so haven’t been pinging - hope tomorrow is better.
More than 50 years ago, it was drummed into our heads as Student Nurses that the ‘unconscious” may be able to hear, and that we should not discuss anything we didn’t want the patient to hear when we were at the beside of a comatose patient.
I’ve read 2 books written by someone that was previously “locked in”
One dictated it by blinking.
Well, if I end up in a vegetative state, I hope someone takes a pillow and smothers me. My medical directive says no resuscitation if I’m terminal or a warm doorstop.
I tell you what, I’m passionate about this. I can think of no worse torture for anybody on the planet. Can’t move, can’t talk, can’t work, can’t go to the bathroom by yourself, can’t scratch, can’t eat, incapable of any action whatsoever. If one is concious during this, I can think of no greater torture conceivable...day aafter day, week after week, month after month, year after year, looking at the same walls, watching your family watch you waste away, while all of the savings dwindles to beyond nothing, all the while unable to communicate in any way whatsoever. I seriously doubt that even the strongest person on the planet would not shortly become completely insane if they were concious long term in that condition. Breathing is not living, not even close.
No one is conscious but me and you can’t prove me wrong.
You are robots and figments of my imagination.
Now I have to think up some clever responses for you.
There are many who wish that someone like Terry Schiavo was fully alert and aware for her 15 or so year ordeal. I can think of nothing more vicious or vile to wish on someone. I truly hope and pray that she was indeed gone, and unaware from the start. I find it actually comforting that her autopsy showed that her brain was mostly just fluid and there was nothing left. Perhaps she was spared all those years of agony.
Terri was murdered. Her husband will have to answer for this along with the liberals who pushed for her death.
We don’t know what her brain would have been like, if she hadn’t been deprived of food and water several times. IOW, the attempts to kill her may have caused most of the damage. We just don’t know.
This is nothing new. I graduated from nursing school in 1977. We were always taught to talk to our comatose patients because it was presumed that they could hear us.
In fact, under deathcare, it is more likely that all of us over the age of 65 will automatically be declared "vegetative"...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.