Posted on 09/11/2006 8:17:41 PM PDT by aculeus
We have always been told there is no recovery from persistent vegetative state - doctors can only make a sufferer's last days as painless as possible. But is that really the truth? Across three continents, severely brain-damaged patients are awake and talking after taking ... a sleeping pill. And no one is more baffled than the GP who made the breakthrough. Steve Boggan witnesses these 'strange and wonderful' rebirths
For three years, Riaan Bolton has lain motionless, his eyes open but unseeing. After a devastating car crash doctors said he would never again see or speak or hear. Now his mother, Johanna, dissolves a pill in a little water on a teaspoon and forces it gently into his mouth. Within half an hour, as if a switch has been flicked in his brain, Riaan looks around his home in the South African town of Kimberley and says, "Hello." Shortly after his accident, Johanna had turned down the option of letting him die.
Three hundred miles away, Louis Viljoen, a young man who had once been cruelly described by a doctor as "a cabbage", greets me with a mischievous smile and a streetwise four-move handshake. Until he took the pill, he too was supposed to be in what doctors call a persistent vegetative state.
Across the Atlantic in the United States, George Melendez, who is also brain-damaged, has lain twitching and moaning as if in agony for years, causing his parents unbearable grief. He, too, is given this little tablet and again, it's as if a light comes on. His father asks him if he is, indeed, in pain. "No," George smiles, and his family burst into tears.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
And it sinks to this....
How silly of you.
Anybody who wishes for another posters death most certainly should be suspended at the very least.
These people take this WAY too intense.
Yea, Alzeroth, Belial, Balthazaar, et. al. will be disturbed that sacrifices aren't being made...
I'm really confused about that one; aren't these the people who want the goverment to make everybody do everything the way THEY want it to be done?
Behaviour.
Show me where I have behaved badly on this thread Howlin?
I was having a DISCUSSION with Hildy and then noticed you just sort of jumped in and started swingin at everyone. I also noticed that Hildy was holding her own just fine. So then again I guess perhaps it's you being judgmental and pious. If you don't want me to post to Hildy then say so.
For calling you down for the vicious and fallacious poster you are?
I didn't post that to you. I posted that to your friend Howlin.
Don't confuse the issue Hildy. I was having a calm discussion with you.
I wouldn't be too sure about that. With exciting results like these in what were considered hopeless cases, zolpidem is going to be studied. And if it proves successful, it's going to become standard of care, whether or not the FDA approves it.
I'm curious about several things, but a few right off the bat:
1. Are the patients involved PVS or MCS (minimally conscious state)?
2. Does the patient's brain have to be basically anatomically intact? (If the theory involving GABA is correct, I'd guess "yes.")
3. How long is "transient"? One description I found seemed to say that the patient involved had only a brief lucid time each morning. (It would be truly hard to have a loved one back for only 10 minutes each day!) More hopefully, another report for a different patient mentioned 3 to 4 hours.
My response was to the use of the word TeriBots... and you know it.
Don't try to paint me with your nasty attitude brush Howlin.
You know your use of Terri's name in this way is disgusting, admit it.
As soon as I read it I said....ZOT. Gone in seconds!
To: Triggerhippie; onyx; Peach; Howlin; RS
Here's to your ill health and untimely demise...
And there you have it..a compassionate Freeper who preaches the sanctity of life. IT'S SO PERFECT...and predictable.
127 posted on 09/12/2006 12:20:09 AM CDT by Hildy (5r)
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Quit trying to attribute that to me. Read my posts to Howlin. I responded to her untasteful disgusting abuse of Terri's name.
It's a standard medical term. There are other medical terms that don't necessarily describe things well either, but continue to be used because everyone knows them. If zolpidem proves effective in what is clearly PVS, the term will change, believe me.
It's BEHAVIOR.
Do you have a retention problem or do you just comprehend some of the words?
I was pinged to a DEATH THREAT on this thread.
Rich, but the truth...
And I'm sure you wonder why people like you get a "vacation" from FR.
Just makes me shake my head.
Is it more disgusting that being called a murderer?
I think not.
This struck me as interesting -
2. Does the patient's brain have to be basically anatomically intact?
what does "basically anatomically intact" require ?
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