Boy in "Hopeless" Vegetative State Awakens and Steadily Improves

LifeSiteNews ^ | 10/10/06 | Hilary White

[wagglebee]

GRESHAM, Oregon October 10, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A young boy, who had previously been diagnosed as being in a “permanent vegetative state,” has awakened from a 22 month-long coma and is breathing on his own.

Devon Rivers collapsed in a seizure during a phys-ed class in 2004 and his condition was never explained, though some doctors suggested it was caused by an unknown viral infection. Doctors agreed, however, that he had little hope of recovery.

His mother, Carla Rivers, visited him regularly and, in addition to physical therapy by his paediatric nursing home to keep his limbs supple, she talked to him in the belief that coma patients can retain their hearing and some understanding.

"For two years the doctors said there was no hope," said Carla Rivers. "Everything that happens in Devon's life is a gain. There's no losses."

Despite the doctors’ gloomy prognosis, eleven year-old Devon is now being prepared for occupational therapy to help him re-learn motor skills and is able to play with his siblings. Doctors cannot explain the reason either for his unexpected awakening or for his steady recovery.

In August of this year his mother, Carla Rivers, noticed that he began turning his head to follow movement; instead of a blank stare, he was reacting to his environment. Days later Devon was breathing without a respirator.

Carla Rivers said, “Devon may make a full recovery or what we see today may be what we get…God's plan is greater than ours. There's nothing we can do to force it any sooner or hold it back,” she said.

Coma patients and others with severe cognitive disabilities have been labelled “hopeless” only to recover frequently enough that some doctors and ethicists are questioning the accuracy of the diagnosis of “persistent vegetative state” (PVS).

The diagnosis is ambiguous in that symptoms of patients can vary greatly and still be called “vegetative.” A 1996 study published in the British Medical Journal showed that 43% of patients diagnosed with PVS do not qualify for the diagnosis.

In 2003, Kate Adamson, a former coma patient who had been diagnosed PVS, appeared on the television talk show the O'Reilly Factor. She said that, like Terri Schiavo, the hospital had removed her feeding tube that was only reinserted after eight days when her lawyer-husband threatened to sue the hospital.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Diagnosis of Persistent Vegetative State Questioned as Former Patient Speaks Out
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/nov/03111207.html

[solosmoke]

Are you calling me a liar? I will never forget the image of a boy with an eraser shaped head on the Oprah Winfrey show. The show was about miracles, and of all the stories, that is one to remember. If I remember correctly, they might have had a doctor on there to testify about the fact that it was a medical mystery. At least one half of the frontal lobe was gone, and I believe there was only part of the other half remaining. His skull was slanted inward to such a degree that there really couldn't be much there. If anyone has a link it would be greatly appreciated.

[T'wit]

Here's another take on God's plan, from an expert:

"At the end of our lives, we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made or how many great things we have done. We will be judged by ‘I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless and you took me in.’" -- Mother Teresa

This 10-year-old boy, arrested for trying to bring a glass of water to Terri Schiavo, passed God's test. I can't say as much for the cops who took him away in handcuffs, or for Michael Schiavo, his lawyers, or Judge Greer.

[wagglebee]

That boy was a true hero!

[MayflowerMadam]

"SHE WAS NOT PVS!!!! But, they killed her anyway!:

Her main problem was that she was inconvenient to her pig of a husband.

[T'wit]

It is fairly common in cases of pediatric epilepsy to surgically remove or detach half of the brain in order to RESTORE normality. Here's a background page: Hemispherectomy

[T'wit]

He certainly was! I hope the light that already shines within him guides his steps for all of his days.

[wagglebee]

You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
--Matthew 5:14

[bjs1779]

I think the lad got 25 hours of community service and was ordered to write a letter of apology to Auschwitz the hospice for trespassing.

[T'wit]

Do you have a link to his letter somewhere? It was a classic of non-apology. I can't help much with a search. All I remember is the boy's name was Joshua.

Hmm. It belatedly occurs to me that sentencing a Christian to community service is a lot like sentencing a Christian to be Christian.

[spunkets]

What I was saying is that it's impossible for a seizure to result in PVS. A seizure is simply an excessive, uncoordinated firing of neurons in some region(s) in the brain. It can't result in any permanent brain damage. It must result from some other damage, or disease.

PVS can only result from extensive irreversible brain damage. It is not the same as a coma, nor is it similar. The two can always be differentiated and a diagnoses of PVS will be supported by imaging showing extensive damage to particular critical areas.

[bigjoesaddle]

Yet the Culture of Death would prefer to euthanize them all.

Careful now, many here at FR were willing to kill Terri (the only time i was ever ashamed to be a FReeper).

[spunkets]

"the Oprah Winfrey show. The show was about miracles

She's a showboat and this was a heart tug episode. I asked spesific question, which I would have asked any docs that showed up on the show. If they actually said what you repeated, I would have exposed them as quacks.

"If I remember correctly, they might have had a doctor on there to testify about the fact that it was a medical mystery.

A real doc would not have played along with heart string and miricle con.

At least one half of the frontal lobe was gone, and I believe there was only part of the other half remaining. His skull was slanted inward to such a degree that there really couldn't be much there.

There was a lot there. Most of the brain was still intact. There was no critical damage done and the slant was, because of the missing and destroyed bone. It sounds like a partial frontal lobotomy. A full frontal would have left the patient unable to concentrate and organize thoughts. was evidently enough of this region left to provide function.

"Are you calling me a liar? "I don't believe you're familiar with neurophysiology and the funtioning of brain regiions at all. I believe you were led on by a Hollywood showboat and inept docs playing a con.

[T'wit]

Here's another link. I know Sarah Foster slightly, have read several of her stories on Terri and related matters, and can tell you, she is good reporter and a straight shooter.

"Grandmama is old and I think it is time she went home to Jesus"... WND Story on Mae McGouirk, by Sarah Foster

[ladyjane]

graf008 - Check out Mae McGouirk's story.

[graf008]

Legal system failed there - I hope that heads would roll.

[T'wit]

>> ... a diagnoses of PVS will be supported by imaging...

Indeed. But it wasn't in Terri Schiavo's case. Michael Schiavo refused to allow MRIs or PET scans. A long list of board-certified neurologists and other medical professionals -- some 50 in number -- signed or volunteered affidavits that Terri should have the standard imaging before she was diagnosed as PVS. Judge Greer ignored them all.

What about those CTs everybody saw? Freeper Polybius, a radiologist, showed that they were disinformation -- a trick to fool laymen (and reporters). And as the NR article cited below points out, CTs are hopeless in comparison to more modern MRI or PET imaging.

Here are some intriguing details from the National Review report by Robert Johansen. I recommend the whole article if one has time. It is eye-opening.

"Starving for a fair diagnosis"

>> "Terri’s diagnosis was arrived at without the benefit of testing that most neurologists would consider standard for diagnosing PVS. One such test is MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). MRI is widely used today, even for ailments as simple as knee injuries — but Terri has never had one. Michael has repeatedly refused to consent to one. The neurologists I have spoken to have reacted with shock upon learning this fact. One such neurologist is Dr. Peter Morin. He is a researcher specializing in degenerative brain diseases, and has both an M.D. and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Boston University.

>> "In the course of my conversation with Dr. Morin, he made reference to the standard use of MRI and PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scans to diagnose the extent of brain injuries. He seemed to assume that these had been done for Terri. I stopped him and told him that these tests have never been done for her; that Michael had refused them.

>> "There was a moment of dead silence.

>> “That’s criminal,” he said, and then asked, in a tone of utter incredulity: “How can he continue as guardian? People are deliberating over this woman’s life and death and there’s been no MRI or PET?” He drew a reasonable conclusion: “These people [Michael Schiavo, George Felos, and Judge Greer] don’t want the information.”

>> Dr. Morin explained that he would feel obligated to obtain the information in these tests before making a diagnosis with life and death consequences. I told him that CT (Computer-Aided Tomography) scans had been done, and were partly the basis for the finding of PVS. The doctor retorted, “Spare no expense, eh?” I asked him to explain the comment; he said that a CT scan is a much less expensive test than an MRI, but it “only gives you a tenth of the information an MRI does.” He added, “A CT scan is useful only in pretty severe cases, such as trauma, and also during the few days after an anoxic (lack of oxygen) brain injury. It’s useful in an emergency-room setting. But if the question is ischemic injury [brain damage caused by lack of blood/oxygen to part of the brain] you want an MRI and PET. For subsequent evaluation of brain injury, the CT is pretty useless unless there has been a massive stroke.”

[spunkets]

Re: a diagnoses of PVS will be supported by imaging...

" Indeed. But it wasn't in Terri Schiavo's case. Michael Schiavo refused to allow MRIs or PET scans. A long list of board-certified neurologists and other medical professionals -- some 50 in number -- signed or volunteered affidavits that Terri should have the standard imaging before she was diagnosed as PVS. Judge Greer ignored them all.

The imaging was done. I read most of the court docs that were posted. The imaging backed up the PVS. I was thrown off by the videos released by the parents. Those videos were false and misleading and only included less than 2 min, out of over 45 min of response testing. They were part of a con orchestrated by the parents.

Gov Bush's team from FL did all the testing possible to insure Terri's rights were honored and that the diagnoses was correct. The parents had 2 docs back their claims and what those docs said amounted to promises based on quackery.

[Scotswife]

"A young boy, who had previously been diagnosed as being in a “permanent vegetative state,” has awakened from a 22 month-long coma and is breathing on his own."

This is how it works...the person is declared PVS, but if they improve they say "oh! they must have been in a coma all along!"
Did you catch the part in the article about the 43% rate of misdiagnosis?
Have you read up on the condition known as "minimally conscious"?

[Scotswife]

"Wasn't the Shiavo case resolved after the autopsy that showed her brain to be in a severly damaged condition? This news article is a different case - the Schiavo case is over."

No. PVS cannot be diagnosed from an autopsy...something that was stated in the autopsy but not reported in the news.
The autopsy stated the brain had shrunk..but anyone's brain would shrink from 2 weeks of dehydration.

The autopsy confirmed damage to the part of the brain relating to sight...Terri's family already knew she had a difficult time seeing - so they put their faces very close to her while speaking to her.

The autopsy confirmed atrophy to part of her brain...this does not indicate brain death.It is "consistent with" pvs, but it is also "consistent with" other conditions such as minimally conscious state, severe brain damage...etc.

[Scotswife]

"The two can always be differentiated and a diagnoses of PVS will be supported by imaging showing extensive damage to particular critical areas."

PVS is not a diagnosis made from brain imaging, but it a clinical diagnosis that should be made among a team of experts over a period of time.
Go to bmj journals and search the related articles.
Every mistake that could be made in diagnosing pvs was made in the Schiavo case...especially the overreliance on the CT scan which is much less informative than the MRI, but also ignoring the input of all her caregivers and doctors who spent more time with her.