Posted on 05/08/2005 4:24:05 PM PDT by FairOpinion
Donald Herbert's breakthrough after a decade in a nearly silent stupor offers more evidence that other patients with severe brain injuries, often written off as hopeless, might improve with treatment, medical experts said last week.
Over the last 10 years, he appeared to fluctuate between a vegetative and a minimally conscious state, said Dr. Jamil Ahmed, a rehabilitation specialist at Erie County Medical Center who has treated Herbert since 2002.
Herbert unexpectedly started conversing again April 30, his brain apparently stimulated by a new combination of drugs he started taking three months ago. Since then, he has become less active again.
An estimated 112,000 to 280,000 Americans live in a minimally conscious state, many of them receiving only custodial care in institutions. Experts say that the stories of remarkable recoveries from brain damage often can be traced to minimally conscious patients who were thought to be vegetative.
But an accurate diagnosis is difficult. There's no exact boundary between the vegetative and minimally conscious states. People disagree about what constitutes awareness, and physicians can't look inside their patients' minds to learn what they're thinking.
(Excerpt) Read more at buffalonews.com ...
But reading this, we can see that there are so many unknowns, so many uncertainties, and yet Terri Schindler Schiavo was killed, despite of more than reasonable doubt about her condition, and no doubt about her being an innocent person, who was inconvenient to her husband.
I for one, don't understand the outrage about killing Terri. Millions of people are killed inside the womb, why complain if we kill them outside the womb? It's a double standard. Murder is murder, bottom line.
Jeff
I hope and pray he gains his full health and lives a full life.
I for one, don't understand the outrage about killing Terri. Millions of people are killed inside the womb, why complain if we kill them outside the womb? It's a double standard. Murder is murder, bottom line.
Or just sickened by it all.
"I for one, don't understand the outrage about killing Terri. Millions of people are killed inside the womb, why complain if we kill them outside the womb? It's a double standard. Murder is murder, bottom line.
Jeff"
Well Jeff, some of us DO complain about killing innocent babies inside the womb. Perhaps you hadn't heard?
Yes sir, but just not loud enough, because IT IS STILL GOING ON.
So we should keep bodies alive in the hopes that someday they'll wake up minimally for a few days. See, I think that's torture. But that's me.
The outrage about Terri is because this is another leap down the slippery slope that we began sliding down with the legalization of abortion on demand. Many people can say "I'm personally against abortion, but I can't impose my views on someone else," because they do not realize that the culture of death can reach them, too. But with Terri's murder, it is very clear that killing for convenience can claim anyone's life. ANY of us might become helpless and be in Terri's position. Terri represents further devaluing of human life; if we can't stop this, now, before even more people are included on the "okay to terminate" list, there's no chance in the world of stopping the holocaust that has claimed so many of our children.
God bless you dear lady. Very well texted.
Jeff
And on who's authority says too kill the person?
Just a thought, the firefighter speaking now, would HIGHLY disagree with you.
Huh?
It was a simple question.
Right you are -- I didn't see either Don or his family complain about any 'torture' - they were so thrilled he was awake!
Logic and reason at its finest, well texted :)
Jeff
Don Herbert has proven that one can come out of a PVS or minimially concious state and have all one's memory intact. Don Herbert is still there!
These cases aren't dead end, never getting better cases, end of story cases. At any time, as with Don Herbert, we will find the right treatment that will bring these people out of the dream world they are in.
AND we will never be able to bring any of them back or learn anything from them to help others if we kill them off like animals.
Yes and you get to decide about you - not others who may think differently. That is fair.
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