A casual observation of video clips of her condition makes it obvious she is aware of her surroundings and reacting to them. But she has a severely limited ability to move, she is unable to speak, and currently unable to eat -- although many therapists seem to believe she could make progress on all these areas if her husband would allow such treatment.
This is certainly not what I would call brain dead.
I heard a family member last night (Brother?) stating that speech therapists thought that it was very possible she could speak if they could work with her but they have been refused.
However, she has the ability to digest what is coming through the feeding tube...