8mm
Posted on 03/09/2007 12:24:57 AM PST by FairOpinion
A woman who has been in a coma-like state for more than six years awoke for three days this week to talk with family members and eat her favorite foods before relapsing.
“She was smiling and grinning and told my staff she wanted to go to a club, even doing a little chair dance in her wheelchair,” said one of her doctors, Randall Bjork.
The woman, Christa Lilly, 49, suffered a cardiac arrest in November 2000. Since then, her mother, Minnie Smith, has been caring for her at home. Ms. Smith said Ms. Lilly had awakened five times, sometimes for hours, then for days.
“We may have to rethink these people that have been called vegetative in nursing homes who may have some awareness of their horrible circumstances,” said Dr. Bjork. “It goes against the grain of what we thought.”
Dr. Bjork said that he had been skeptical of Ms. Smith’s previous reports of her daughter’s waking states, but that he was now a believer. He said Ms. Lilly was in a “minimally conscious state” rather than a persistent vegetative state.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Awake for only 12 days this century - 'miracle' of coma woman
Her doctors say she is in a vegetative state but that it is not persistent and that she is not in a coma. They describe her condition as "minimally conscious". Her eyes are open, but they focus on the ceiling all day and her body is rigid. She cannot walk or communicate, has no awareness and has to be fed through a tube into her stomach.
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And she awakened from THAT state -- read this article in this post, it gives more detailed, she talked, ate, even gave an interview to the local TV station.
PING
ping
That's why it's good to be skeptical of Dr's...
And another article:
Woman awakens after 6 years
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4614191.html
"Bjork said he could not explain why she awoke but said it could happen again. He said it was unlikely she would show much improvement beyond similar brief periods of lucidity because of the severity of her brain damage."
This is ridiculous. The brain damage doesn't "come and go". If there really is a severe brain damage, how could she wake up, talk, be aware of her surroundings, eat, etc at all for DAYS?!
Obviously there is something else going on in at least some of the cases that are being diagnoses as vegetatives state -- and I bet she was NOT diagnosed as "minimally conscious" until AFTER she woke up.
"... Ms. Smith said she took her daughter out for her favorite foods this week — catfish, hush puppies, cake and ice cream." There you go, I knew it. The restorative power of Southern cooking.
That is an interesting post, especially this line: "A report last year by Cambridge University researchers showed that patients who are apparently unconscious often have more brain function than previously suspected." Notice that in many of the cases of "awakening" the folks are being cared for at home where they are surrounded by loved ones. The caregivers in these situations are unsung heroes.
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Yes indeed.
"A report last year by Cambridge University researchers showed that patients who are apparently unconscious often have more brain function than previously suspected. The study showed that the brains of comatose patients responded to verbal stimuli in a similar manner to those of conscious volunteers. The team admitted it was "absolutely stunned" by the findings."
I think that especially because they do understand more, being surrounded by loved ones does give them stimulus and they do feel better, than in a hospital environment, where they are being treated as "vegetables".
It is had to believe someone with such a diet would have a heart attack.
Obviously there is something else going on in at least some of the cases that are being diagnoses as vegetatives state -- and I bet she was NOT diagnosed as "minimally conscious" until AFTER she woke up.
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There are all sorts of stories of this sort of thing, even stories of children who were declared dead and then got out of bed and resumed normal activity as if nothing had happened. Someone once said that "reality is the one illusion we all share"!
Um, I think she went back into a come after the meal.
(Too much of a good thing, perhaps.)
I guess the family members shouldn't have told her that Mrs. Clinton might be our next president.
They may not. They move around in swarms and then disappear. As I commented on our Terri Dailies, they behave like a swarm of bees, and Mikey is just one of their love-ins. They have other liberal causes to disrupt, too.
;-)
That was fed to her after she revived. It might well be what put her back under.
This doesn't surprise me. I think that many times they have some sort of consciousness and can detect their family. I believe that Terri could see and hear her family, and she died a miserable death. I don't think a lot of these people are vegetables, and cases like this prove there is brain activity and chance of recovery.
Off with her. Let her starve. Obviously she is not worth letting live and all the money and time we're spending................
My neurologist.
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