Posted on 02/09/2005 7:29:45 AM PST by MizSterious
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Tue Feb 8, 4:54 PM ET
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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Patients in a minimally conscious state (MCS) -- those with severe brain damage who demonstrate intermittent awareness of their environment -- may retain some degree of cognitive function, even though they can't follow simple instructions or communicate, the findings from a small study suggest.
Using a special type of "functional" MRI scan, researchers found that such patients exhibit brain responses to speech similar to those seen in healthy individuals. The findings appear in the medical journal Neurology
"These findings raise important questions related to whether MCS patients have a greater capacity to experience subjective states but also to benefit from therapeutic interventions," Dr. Joy Hirsch, at Columbia University in New York, and her colleagues suggest in their report.
Hirsch's group performed functional MRI on two brain-injured patients in a minimally conscious state and on seven healthy subjects as they listened to narratives by family members. Functional MRI was also performed while the subjects' hands were touched.
"The MCS patients studied here showed remarkably similar brain activity to that evoked in healthy control subjects," the authors report.
"In our subjects, the resting MCS brain preserves an ability to recruit (nerve) networks necessary for cognition and interaction," Hirsch's group reports. This possibility "presents a humanitarian imperative to further investigate the state of consciousness of these and other brain-injured patients."
SOURCE: Neurology, February 8, 2005.
(I did a search, so I hope this hasn't been posted before.)
Someone needs to forward this information to Terri's parents so they can give it to their attorney.
Terri PING!!
Similar to the other article. Very hopeful if the courts will listen.
This may explain Liberal Democrats more than Terry Schrivo......
NeverGore :^)
Ping
doesn't pass the first requirement....must have brain...
Just the proof I need.
Happy Birthday!
Thanks
I hope so too--but Terri has already displayed signs that she's functioning at a higher level than "brain dead" as is claimed. (Not that this will stop those who insist she has a "right" to die...)
Thanks for the ping!
Terri ping! If anyone would like to be added to or removed from my Terri ping list, please let me know by FReepmail!
It's been widely reported that people who have come out of comas, can then relate conversations that they heard from those speaking in their presence as they lay in a comatose state.
Here's a link to the other thread from yesterday. IMHO, the more exposure this gets, the better. Not to worry that it's the same material, with a different title.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1338446/posts
It's been widely reported that people who have come out of comas, can then relate conversations that they heard from those speaking in their presence as they lay in a comatose state.
True, but the people of FL won't buy that truth. With so many "enlightened" Yankees and retired persons inhabiting FL, one would think that the populace would be sympathetic to the disabled, but apparently not. The elderly there must be worshipping a kind of "Grecian" youth culture.
This information has already made its way to them. I received an e-mail from Fight4Terri last night about it. If you would like to be on their e-mail list contact Fight4Terri@aol.com to be added.
I saw the story on last night's news, and the patient they featured seemed to demonstrate LESS cognitive and emotive funciton than Terri seems to show in the clips and pictures I've seen of her. I hope this is brought to apply to her case.
Prayers and blessings.
Actually, Terri is the most PERFECT human being I know. She is not capable of being vicious or mean. She is completely innocent. She is PERFECT.
Thanks for the ping!
How very TRUE!
I am not surprised and always suspected this was the case!
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