John Douglas, also called The Mindhunter, who wrote a book by that name about his exploits as the top serial killer profiler and all the cases he has worked on, has a radio show on L.A.'s KFI AM 640 on Saturday evenings. Tonight he was talking about a bad time in his life when he was so consumed by his work that he nearly died.
He had become "one-dimensional" and "obsessed" with his work, and while on the Seattle Green River Killer case, his immune system was so bad that he contracted viral encephalitis. Unfortunately he was in his hotel room with the Do Not Disturb sign on the door when he fell ill and they only found him 2 days later, paralyzed in frog position on the floor. They thought he was a goner. They rushed him to the hospital but they also were having people plan for the inevitable. His family was flown out, preparations for burial took place. They saw the extensive brain stoppage and his paralysis and thought that he would never come out of his coma or if he lived he would never recover.
He said that in the past few weeks he thought a lot about Terri Schiavo because when they all thought he was in a coma, he could feel the agonizing pain of all the tubes they kept shoving into every orifice. But he was unable to respond. He could hear their voices and everything.
Whether or not Terri ever improves is not my point. John Douglas is still writing books and working and has obviously recovered completely (or well enough!) but my point is that even when from the outside, it seems (even to medical personnel) that the person has no feelings or is vegetative or is not responding, HOW DO WE KNOW???? They well could be but have been left with an instrument (body) that is not functioning well enough for them to make clear that they are responding.
Thought you all might be interested. He apparently recounts the entire episode in his Mindhunter book.