Posted on 02/03/2010 6:32:00 PM PST by Steelfish
Patients In 'Vegetative' State Can Think And Communicate Patients left in a vegetative state after suffering devastating brain damage are able to understand and communicate, groundbreaking research suggests.
By Richard Alleyne and Martin Beckford 03 Feb 2010
'Vegetative state' brain scan images:: the fMRI images which were used as part of the study by Dr Adrian Owen [Pics in URL]
Experts using brain scans have discovered for the first time that the victims, who show no outward signs of awareness, can not only comprehend what people are saying to them but also answer simple questions. They were able to give yes or no responses to simple biographical questions.
The unlocking of this inner voice has astounded doctors and has dramatic implications for thousands of life and death decisions over patients trapped in what is known as a persistent vegetative state (PVS). It means around one in five PVS patients may be able to communicate.
It will raise questions about when doctors should switch off life support machines. It is likely to add to the debate on assisted suicide as the patient could potentially decide and communicate if they wish to carry on living. It comes just weeks after Kay Gilderdale was acquitted of assisting the suicide of her daughter Lynn who the jury accepted had lived a twilight life for more than 17 years.
Up to a thousand PVS patients in Britain are kept alive by doctors in the hope they may one day regain consciousness. But in some cases, like Hillsborough victim Tony Bland, relatives have won the right to withdraw treatment to allow them to die.
Dr Adrian Owen, co-author at the Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge who carried out the latest research on one patient, said the findings have enormous philosophical and ethical implications.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
- Traveler
NO Thanks to the Florida courts!
NO Thanks to the Florida courts!
That’s even more sadder story.
I will NEVER get over what was done to Terri. Or that so called “conservatives” even on this site supported it. Not all, but they know who they were. The Government sentenced that woman to death and she was innocent of any crime. Chilling.
it is a sign of the times when Teri’s husband could have her murdered legally. Look for more and more of this very much like Germany in the 1930’s Hitler would be proud.
ping
I should have said that Hitler and Obama would be proud!!
When I read the headline, I thought of Terry.
I agree completely!
And some even get elected to public office.
That’s not what the liberals debate about. They may use it as an argument. But what they what they really care about is the “quality of life.”
I will NEVER get over what was done to Terri. Or that so called conservatives even on this site supported it. Not all, but they know who they were. The Government sentenced that woman to death and she was innocent of any crime. Chilling.
__________________________________________________________
I feel the same way about sweet Terri. As the mother of three boys, it makes me sick to think that the government allowed the killing of this innocent, defenseless person.
Roger that. I will also never get over some supposedly compassionate friends at work who had no problem shipping Elian Gonzalez back to Fidel even though his mother had died to get him here.
“...it makes me sick to think that the government allowed the killing of this innocent, defenseless person.”
Hey, after the tragedy that transpired in Waco, Texas, nothing our government does will EVER surprise me again.
The Waco tragedy was “a shameful instance of government-sanctioned slaughter of people [American citizens who happened to follow a conservative protestant religion similar to southern Baptists and who all lived and worked on the same ranch and chose to home school their children].”
The parents on the ranch in Waco had broken no law (it is legal to protect oneself and one’s family against attack), but, they had asserted their freedoms and rights. This was to the chagrin of Attorney General in the Clinton Administration, Janet Reno (a woman I am convinced WILL spend an eternity without reunion with GOD).
Among the American citizens executed by the government that day were twenty-one children under the age of 16 as listed below. Eleven of the children weren not even old enough to be in first grade yet.
Lisa Martin 13 Sheila Martin, Jr. 15
Rachel Sylvia 12 Hollywood Sylvia 1
Joseph Martinez 8 Abigail Martinez 11
Crystal Martinez 3 Isaiah Martinez 4
Audrey Martinez 13 Melissa Morrison 6
Chanel Andrade 1 Cyrus Koresh 8
Star Koresh 6 Bobbie Lane Koresh 2
Dayland Gent 3 Page Gent 1
Mayanah Schneider 2 Startle Summers 1
Serenity Jones 4 Chica Jones 2
Little One Jones 2
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