Reborn [Pill reverses "vegetative state"]

The Guardian (UK) ^ | September 12, 2006 | by Steve Boggan

[aculeus]

We have always been told there is no recovery from persistent vegetative state - doctors can only make a sufferer's last days as painless as possible. But is that really the truth? Across three continents, severely brain-damaged patients are awake and talking after taking ... a sleeping pill. And no one is more baffled than the GP who made the breakthrough. Steve Boggan witnesses these 'strange and wonderful' rebirths

For three years, Riaan Bolton has lain motionless, his eyes open but unseeing. After a devastating car crash doctors said he would never again see or speak or hear. Now his mother, Johanna, dissolves a pill in a little water on a teaspoon and forces it gently into his mouth. Within half an hour, as if a switch has been flicked in his brain, Riaan looks around his home in the South African town of Kimberley and says, "Hello." Shortly after his accident, Johanna had turned down the option of letting him die.

Three hundred miles away, Louis Viljoen, a young man who had once been cruelly described by a doctor as "a cabbage", greets me with a mischievous smile and a streetwise four-move handshake. Until he took the pill, he too was supposed to be in what doctors call a persistent vegetative state.

Across the Atlantic in the United States, George Melendez, who is also brain-damaged, has lain twitching and moaning as if in agony for years, causing his parents unbearable grief. He, too, is given this little tablet and again, it's as if a light comes on. His father asks him if he is, indeed, in pain. "No," George smiles, and his family burst into tears.

[jwalsh07]

Ambien, Patrick Kennedy, Vegetative State.

[Hildy]

I want to know who is going to pay to keep all these bodies alive.

[Hildy]

I want to know who is going to pay to keep all these bodies alive???

[jwalsh07]

That's not what I asked you but while we are on the topic, who pay's to keep you alive? :-}

[kenth]

There it is, the price tag.

[WOSG]

People in a coma are not subhuman; they are asleep.
It shouldnt be called PVS - vegetative is an insult, these are humans, not cabbages - so call it what it is,
PUS - Persistent Unconscious State.

It's wonderful that we are able to wake some of them up.

---

Perhaps the last word should go to Pat Flores, the mother of George Melendez, the 31-year-old coma patient who reassured his parents that he wasn't in pain after taking Ambien, as zolpidem is known in the US. He was starved of oxygen when his car overturned and he landed face down in a garden pond near his home in Houston, Texas, in 1998. "The doctors said he was clinically dead - one said he was a vegetable," says Pat. "After three weeks he suffered multi-organ failure and they said his body would ultimately succumb. They said he would never regain consciousness."

He survived and four years later, while visiting a clinic, Pat gave him a sleeping pill because his constant moaning was keeping her and her husband, Del, awake in their shared hotel room. "After 10 to 15 minutes I noticed there was no sound and I looked over," she recalls. "Instead of finding him asleep, there he was, wide awake, looking at his surroundings. I said, 'George', and he said, 'What?' We sat up for two hours asking him questions and he answered all of them. His improvements have continued and we talk every day. He has a terrific sense of humour and he carries on running jokes from the day before.

[Salamander]

I wonder if.....ping.

[WOSG]

"There it is, the price tag."


Ya know, Ambien is soooo expensive (/sarc)

[Hildy]

What kind of ridiculous question is that? If you don't want to answer my question, fine. But as a Society, we'd better ask ourselves that question: If everyone is to be kept alive, by any means possible, WHO IS GOING TO PAY FOR IT?

[Hildy]

Very articulate...bravo!

[jwalsh07]

What's ridiculous about it? Do you get any subsidies from the government? Social security? Health insurance? A paycheck? Student loan? etc, etc?

Oh and BTW, try this on for size Ms Compassion:

"One specialist said he had a 5% chance of recovering, another said he had no chance whatsoever of regaining consciousness," says his mother, Johanna. She and her husband, Tinus, spend about £1,000 a month on round-the-clock care for their son in a converted garage at their home, but until June they had seen no sign of awareness in him. Then they asked their doctor, Clive Holroyd, to contact Nel for advice."

[Hildy]

YES...the price tag. WHO IS GOING TO PAY? That is a valid question and one, as a Society, we have to face.

[RS]

an article on this case from July - http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=2154940&page=1

"He can respond to his parents by either shaking his head yes or no and sometimes even speaks."

Somewhat different from a two hour running conversation ...

[Salamander]

Aaah, screw it.

We just should send everybody off to "Carousel" when they hit 30 and be done with it.

[p.s...Soylent Green is people!!!!]

[shield]

Amazing.....

[Hildy]

I get NO subidies from the government..thank you. But I did see how much Medicare spent on my parents at the end of their lives, and it was astrononical. SO, if you want everyone to be kept alive, no matter what the cost, tell us now, here, that you are willing to fork over 80% of your salary for that to happen.... or else ... STFU.

[rawcatslyentist]

>"Why don't we just freeze everyone's bodies until we can come up with a way to keep them all alive FOREVER?????"

If you're volunteering, I'm not complaining! If you're not volunteering, I'm still not complaining.

Have a nice day ;0

[denydenydeny]

I get the feeling that certain people are going to be very upset at this news.

[little jeremiah]

Have you seen this one?