"She would be "alive", not brain dead. She would also not be in a PVS. Pre frontal lobotomies have been done years ago to treat mental illness and people continued to function. JFK's sister had had this proceedure and was still functioning and "thinking" to some extent."
A fascinating take on the nature of brain injury and its effects on consciousness.
I have no frontal lobe.
It was destroyed in an accident in 1981.
All that's filling up the space is scar tissue and spinal fluid.
Apparently I'm still functioning and "thinking" to some extent.
I won't bore you with the details of the damage I also sustained in my temporal and parietal lobes and cerebellum.
Suffice it to say that I was declared "hopeless" by the doctors in the hospital and that *if* I ever awoke, I'd be a "vegetable" for life.
They told my parents that injuries *much* less severe than my own usually killed people, outright.
After an 11 day hospital "death watch", I simply awoke and asked for a cheeseburger.
There was no gradual "improvement" in health.
I just woke up and that was it.
[I had my cheeseburger and walked out of the hospital that same day and went out to dinner and dancing, that night]
Miracle?
Probably.
With the exception of anosmia and a balance problem [inner ear bones damaged too], I was "fine".
I have to work a little harder to recall things due to short-term memory problems and my fine motor control isn't as fine as it used to be, but and I *am* "functioning and thinking to some extent".
I hope you understand now why I am so disgusted by people who say that "this part or the other of her brain is missing and therefore there is no hope".
I am lacking major parts which are supposedly "vital" to consciousness and "self" yet here am I, lucid and functioning superbly.
My point is, there is always -hope- and science doesn't even begin to understand how the brain can "reroute circuitry" to compensate for damaged areas.
Having nearly been like Terri, myself, I have a vested interest in her welfare.
She deserves an attempt at rehabilitation.
She deserves physical and mental stimulation.
The brain will "atrophy" when deprived of such things and my doctors have flat-out told me that my own efforts to "exercise" my mind, post-injury are responsible for the fact that I am "firing on [almost] all cylinders", today.
I ~could~ have "been her" and she could yet have a chance to "be me"....or at least greatly improved, if only her adoring spouse would allow her that chance.
Salamander, I have seen many miracles in my career in nursing.
I am always expectant of the next one.
I have seen people die you should have lived and I have seen people live who defied the odds and beat all the Doctors predictions.
If you have to err, err on the side of life.
Thank you for your story.
Would you consent to a stand alone thread about this.
Well, I appreciate your extensive reply. Thank you for taking the time. My next step is to talk to one of my physician friends. I certainly can't do a neurological exam. What boggles my mind is that it has taken 15 years to get to this point.