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So-Called “Vegetative” Patient Communicates With Doctors
LifeNews.com ^ | 11/13/12 | Steven Ertelt

Posted on 11/13/2012 11:53:01 PM PST by kathsua

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Too bad Terri Schiavo didn't have this opportunity.
1 posted on 11/13/2012 11:53:17 PM PST by kathsua
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To: kathsua

Grotesque.

Before modern medical technology, this guy would likely have died soon after his accident.

Now modern technology is unnaturally keeping him alive while locked inside his body.

Must be the worst kind of prison.

I would rather die than live like that.


2 posted on 11/13/2012 11:59:22 PM PST by Age of Reason
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To: kathsua

Yep.

It’s time we stop killing people just because someone else says their life isn’t worth living


3 posted on 11/14/2012 12:09:55 AM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: Morgana

bump


4 posted on 11/14/2012 12:21:29 AM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: kathsua

5 posted on 11/14/2012 12:21:55 AM PST by ari-freedom (It's the bennies, stupid.)
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To: Age of Reason
"Now modern technology is unnaturally keeping him alive while locked inside his body."

Want to know what life is like without modern technology?

6 posted on 11/14/2012 12:24:40 AM PST by ari-freedom (It's the bennies, stupid.)
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To: ari-freedom

A little ancient elbow grease would clean that place up a lot. I think you have spotted a cultural problem, not just a technological one. Ditches and middens have been around a long time.


7 posted on 11/14/2012 12:32:24 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: ari-freedom

I live in a place where many are coming out of the stone age. Even w/o technology, people do not have to endure that squalor.


8 posted on 11/14/2012 12:34:06 AM PST by Jemian
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To: GeronL

It’s the decay of moral values that have come with the widespread acceptance of abortion that have led to this cheapening of human life.

Abortion is like a gateway drug that has been dispensed by heartless leftists as though it was a thing to be admired and a delight for all who partake of it.

Physicians that perform late term abortions are lifted up as heroes by throngs of true believers who think that everything is dead and nothing is wrong, that actions are simply legal or illegal and there are no moral absolutes.

These creatures go by many names..Marxists, communists, leftists, atheists.... Freepers recognize them when they see them. This loathsome collection of filth will soon be making life and death decisions as our wonderful new health care system gets rolled out. :-(


9 posted on 11/14/2012 12:34:26 AM PST by Bobalu (It is not obama we are fighting, it is the media.)
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To: Smokin' Joe

We have the technology and modern medicine and people still reject it. That’s where the problems come from.


10 posted on 11/14/2012 12:47:42 AM PST by ari-freedom (It's the bennies, stupid.)
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To: ari-freedom
We have a society which is far from 'enlightened', which is more likely to believe the contents of a YouTube video than evidence at their feet, because the former agrees with their dogma/programming and the latter does not.

Unfortunately, modern medicine has been hurting its own credibility with the 'butter good/butter bad, apples good/apples bad', sort of nonsense, which is about the level of scientific understanding of many of the masses, despite what should be one of the finest public education systems in the world--instead given over to socialist dogma, victim studies, and mush.

And sadly, there are competing forces, which would 'harvest' organs for transplant on the one hand, or simply be relieved of the 'burden' of caring for or visiting a relative who is greatly dependent on others for care, whether that motivation be emotional or financial, on the other, all allied in the push for 'quick' solutions, and not necessarily the 'right' ones.

This discovery, however may help lead to mapping the nerve centers and pathways which could lead to a breakthrough in spinal cord or even brain repair, a way to (for instance) cure those injured in wartime and in peaceful pursuits.

It is still the least understood organ in the body.

11 posted on 11/14/2012 1:00:18 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: Age of Reason

Wow, do you ever have the wrong “handle” to post on this thread...which is sure to be bereft of logic.

Never mind that the worst nightmare in all of humanity has universally been that of being “buried alive”....and that this is far worse since you don’t eventually fall asleep to peacefully die as the oxygen runs out.

There is no string wound through your fingers to ring the bell...just the horror of waking up repeatedly to find that it is not a nightmare, but reality. Day, after day, after day...with some celebrating the torture as success. This is simply horrifying if it proves to be true.

God help us all.


12 posted on 11/14/2012 1:00:48 AM PST by garandgal
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To: kathsua

It’s a shame the doctors can’t cut him up and resell his parts to other patients. There’s so much money to be made. /sarc


13 posted on 11/14/2012 1:16:04 AM PST by Fresh Wind (Cut the cable today!)
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To: Age of Reason
If it becomes possible for people in a PVS to communicate their wishes; they could tell us whether they’d prefer to live or die. If you were in a PVS, you could ask to be “allowed” to die. (More likely, killed by being deprived of food and water.) Others might have different wishes.
14 posted on 11/14/2012 1:17:49 AM PST by USFRIENDINVICTORIA
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To: Age of Reason
Before modern medical technology, this guy would likely have died soon after his accident. Now modern technology is unnaturally keeping him alive while locked inside his body. Must be the worst kind of prison.

Not necessarily so. Brain Injury unlike Spinal Cord Injury can at any time improve even years down the road. I worked in a nursing home as did my wife back in the 1980's. My wife suffered a spinal infarction and had to quit work and I quit to care for her then returned to work till my own disabilities hit me. A year and a half later after her release from rehab we were driving near a local rehab center for head injury and spinal cord injuries. We saw a patient we had known at work who could barely even talk. He had been that way about 5 years due to head trauma. All of the sudden there he was living independent in an apartment walking down the sidewalk. He could carry on a pretty good converstaion also.

I worked in the maintenance portion of nursing homes my wife was a CNA. I made darn sure so called Vegetated Patients got a very sensitive Nurse Call switch where their slightest touch would activate it. I would explain to them what it was and what it was for.

People need to think about what they say around persons who are in a Coma. The last sense a person looses before death is often hearing.

Maybe you would rather die. But these patients are not on life support. They have a feeding tube and hydration. Usually that's it as far as any special procedures. Most are not even on oxygen.

When my wife was in rehab for three months I saw patients coming in to rehab as she was fixing to be discharged. They had been unconscious for months. We'd see their progress when she'd see them in the doctors office over they years. Not quite as recovered to their abilities before their injury but improved remarkably none the less. I'd rather err on the side of life while life is a possibility. Meaning short of a terminal condition.

15 posted on 11/14/2012 2:14:17 AM PST by cva66snipe (Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?)
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To: garandgal
Never mind that the worst nightmare in all of humanity has universally been that of being “buried alive”....and that this is far worse since you don’t eventually fall asleep to peacefully die as the oxygen runs out.

My Great Grandfather was a Doctor back in the 1930's. One of his biggest fears we were told was being buried alive. So much so he told his wife that when he passed she was to leave the house for a day or so and come back & check him before calling the undertaker.

16 posted on 11/14/2012 2:20:13 AM PST by cva66snipe (Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?)
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To: Jemian
I live in a place where many are coming out of the stone age.

Detroit?

17 posted on 11/14/2012 2:41:01 AM PST by Bon mots (Abu Ghraib: 47 Times on the front page of the NY Times | Benghazi: 2 Times)
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To: cva66snipe

One of my relatives had a slab installed over his wife’s grave; he didn’t want to take any chances she’d return!


18 posted on 11/14/2012 3:23:50 AM PST by skr (May God confound the enemy)
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To: ari-freedom

Is that Detroit?


19 posted on 11/14/2012 3:32:23 AM PST by MrKatykelly
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To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA

Sounds reasonable, but you would still find yahoos who would say it was wrong to let them die.


20 posted on 11/14/2012 4:08:29 AM PST by sakic
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