Teresa Schiavo was not brain dead, and neither was anyone else who "woke up", since the correct definition excludes that possibility.
We will be playing bridge this afternoon after lunch with my wife's oldest and longest friend.
About six years ago her pro death Neurologist pronounce her brain dead after a severe stroke caused by pass surgery. Fortunately her daughters and husband listened to us and others and fired that Neurologist and got another one.
She still has a speech problem and walking problems. However, she plays bridge as good as she did years ago, does the finances and keep their social schedules going including appointments and social functions like today.
It actually confirms we did the right thing with our mom. She had lung cancer and was in hospital waiting for some new procedure where they put something through her nose and it had meds on it to treat cancer. Very new at that time (1990). That night before surgery she had a seizure. Lasted 1 more week with use of anti-seizure meds and breathing machine. The Dr told us that he ordered a brain wave test but we needed to start thinking about what to do. He explained very clearly that what made mom, mom, was gone. We told him we'd wait until the tests came back but that night she passed away. Thanks to God, we didn't have to make that decision but we had decided that if her tests came back that she had no brain activity, we would turn the machine off.