Awareness Seen in Vegetative Patients

ABC4- Charleston ^ | 10-30-2003 | AP

[Prince Charles]

Awareness Seen in Vegetative Patients

Thursday October 30, 2003 8:06am

Chicago (AP) - A small study suggests that some brain-damaged, vegetative patients may have greater awareness than doctors previously thought.

The findings could have a bearing on right-to-die cases such as the one involving Terri Schiavo, who suffered severe brain damage in 1990 and is the subject of a family dispute over whether she should remain alive.

The researcher who conducted the study said the results could lead to changes in how patients like Schiavo are diagnosed and treated.

Other scientists call the work provocative but far from proof, and say the findings would need to be duplicated in larger studies before they could be put into routine practice.

The study involved just four severely brain-damaged patients who appeared to have been in vegetative states for at least a year. Electrodes placed on their heads detected brain waves indicating some level of awareness in three of the patients when they were presented with nonsensical sentences, said brain researcher John Connolly of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

He said he has found similar results in about 20 other patients.

The findings should be interpreted cautiously but not discounted because sometimes significant research "starts with small observations," said Dr. David Good, a Wake Forest University neurologist who was not involved in Connolly's study.

Dr. Keith Chiappa, director of the EEG lab at Massachusetts General Hospital, agreed the study may have merit and needs further investigation.

Connolly prepared data on the four patients for presentation this week at the Society for Psychophysiological Research meeting in Chicago.

The brain waves he found would probably not be present in patients who have been incapacitated as long as Schiavo.

But Connolly said such patients should undergo the tests just to be sure.

If the brain waves are detected early enough after an injury, some degree of rehabilitation might be possible, Connolly said, citing a patient not included in his study.

[VeritatisSplendor]

You know, given that there are surgeons still practising who operated on babies and small children without anesthetics, in the sincere belief that anesthesia was too risky for young patients and that their nervous systems were too immature to feel pain, and that these physicians dismissed cries and even the children's own reports of pain as reflexes and dreams -- given that, I would think physicians would be bloody well humble about dismissing families' reports of awareness in "vegetative" patients.

But they aren't.

Well, it took all sorts of controlled studies to convince the physicians about babies' pain, about what anybody with eyes and ears and common sense could tell you. Saw a study today - not all drs give local anesthetic for circumscision. In 20 years they will began to be convinced about PVS.

But there's still quality of life, don't you know. Control freak doctors convinced no one would want to live without control.

Mrs VS

[trebb]

right-to-die cases such as the one involving Terri Schiavo

More like a "right to kill my wife so I can collect the insurance" case. There is no record of her wanting to die under the conditions and even then, those cases are generally reserved for when life-support systems are needed, not when feeding is all that's required to preserve life.

[Prince Charles]

Your points are well taken.

One of my Aunt's dear friends was once declared brain dead by her doctors after undergoing minor surgery and suffering complications; she had been in a "vegetative" state for several weeks and the doctors advised the family to pull the plug. They refused the advice.

About 5 weeks later Rose awoke from the deep coma and recovered fully.

This happened about 20 years ago at one of the top hospitals in Chicago. It's a story I've never forgotten.

[Prince Charles]

Bingo... the man is in an adulterous relationship with another woman... it's only natural that he would want to use Terri's cash for the maintenance of the new bed partner. And the courts didn't see this as a problem? Talk about guesswork in black robes!

[MainFrame65]

"... Talk about guesswork in black robes! ..."

Worse than guesswork. The only judge that has ruled on questions of fact in this case is George Greer, who is LEGALLY BLIND! Even if he has a minimal level of vision, he is unable to observe her physical reactions to stimuli, and therefore unfit to judge her condition. He should have recognized that fact and recused himself, and I believe that his failure to do so constitutes GROSS JUDICIAL MISCONDUCT, and is grounds for IMPEACHMENT and REMOVAL. But that is just my opinion.

[nickcarraway]

BUMP

[nickcarraway]

BUMP

[Mike Bates]

Why is it that when I read or hear the word "vegetative" I always think of Democrats?

Michael M. Bates: My Side of the Swamp