Posted on 08/01/2007 11:00:27 AM PDT by ElkGroveDan
NEW YORK - A brain-damaged man who could communicate only with slight eye or thumb movements for six years can speak again, after stimulating electrodes were placed in his brain, researchers report.
The 38-year-old also regained the ability to chew and swallow, which allows him to be spoon-fed, rather than relying on nourishment through a tube in his belly.
The man's brain was injured during an assault, he spent six years with only occasional signs of consciousness and no useful movement of his limbs. In an experiment, researchers implanted electrodes in his brain for a procedure called deep brain stimulation, which is routinely done for Parkinson's disease and some other illnesses.
They turned the electrodes on and off over six months to test their effect, and reported the results in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. The man, who was not identified at the family's request, now has them on throughout the day.
Experts called the report exciting but cautioned that the approach must be tested in more people before its value can be known. The researchers have already begun a study of additional patients.
Before the electrodes were implanted the man was in what doctors call a "minimally conscious state." That means he showed only occasional awareness of himself and the environment. In a coma or vegetative state, by contrast, patients show no outward signs of awareness.
There are no firm statistics on how many Americans are in a minimally conscious state, but one estimate suggests 112,000 to 280,000. Doctors may try medications to improve their condition but no drugs have been firmly established as helpful.
The man described in the Nature study speaks in a breathy but audible voice, said Dr. Joseph Giacino, a co-lead author. He does not initiate conversations but can reply to others, typically with one to three words, said Giacino, of the JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison, N.J.
Several weeks ago he recited the first half of the Pledge of Allegiance without assistance, Giacino said.
The man also recovered some movement. He can demonstrate motions such as brushing his teeth, said study lead author Dr. Nicholas Schiff of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. He can't actually carry out that task because the tendons in his arms contracted after years of immobility.
"He is still totally dependent and severely disabled," Schiff said.
But the treatment has helped him, the man's mother said in a statement. "Now, my son can eat, express himself and let us know if he is in pain. He enjoys a qualify of life we never thought possible," she said.
Dr. James Bernat, a professor of neurology at Darmouth Medical School who didn't participate in the new work, called the Nature report exciting and important. Further study is needed to shed light on how many patients would respond and how to identify the minimally conscious patients with the best chance of being helped, he said.
He noted that a similar treatment did not help Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman in a vegetative state whose care triggered national controversy before her death in 2005. That's the typical outcome for electrical brain stimulation in vegetative states, he said.
Dr. Ross Zafonte of the University of Pittsburgh, who also was familiar with the study results, agreed that "we need to know more" and said the approach is "very interesting and holds great promise."
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They certainly were. Kindly learn the facts in order to insure that you don't make these false statements.
Nurses don't run ad hoc diagnostic tests which are held and recognized as med records. I don't believe their comments, because they fly in the face of all the credible doc's findings.
"Kindly learn the facts in order to insure that you don't make these false statements."
The facts are that Terri was in a PVS and that finding was accepted by the court. The facts are that no credible evidence was presented to Judge Greer, that Terri was in no other condition than PVS. Michael turned the matter over to the court to make a decision, and the decision was made. Since no appeal found fault with the trial court, that includes Gov Bush's panel, the court's decision stood.
It also lets me ask the question they cannot or dare not answer: what happened to Terri? When they are so busy putting her down, calling her PVS, scoffing at the forty doctors who disagreed, and so on, they are actually damning the man who injured her so dreadfully. So I always ask, how did Terri go from sound asleep late one Saturday night to a crumpled, broken heap on the hall floor, unconscious, unresponsive, making gurgling noises, in cardiac arrest, and so close to death that EMS had to defib her seven times even to get her to the emergency room alive -- all this right after her angry husband got home late from work?
They don't have any answer, bjs1779. They must know in their gut that Michael hurt Terri that night long ago -- hurt her terribly.
And not one of them ever memtions all of the lies that Michael told. I wonder why that is?
Bad guess. Terri suffered from menstrual pains and was treated for them, usually with Tylenol as I recall. She also suffered such severe pain during rehab, and voiced it so vociferously, that she was sent for the famous bone scan and supporting radiographs. What the bone scan showed -- pace, Dr. Thogmartin -- was massive trauma.
The only fact here is that Judge Greer "found" Terri to be in a PVS. She wasn't.
Incidentally, it is illegal to put somebody to death in Florida just because she is PVS or found to be PVS by a court.
Boy, that's a stumper. I guess if he lies about this and that, he can't be trusted on anything else, eh? Does that explain it?
I think they like to stay away from any of Michael Schiavo testimony. If Micheal told the truth, let them present it.
Michael managed to avoid testifying more than once. A pity. No matter how hard George Felos coached him, Michael had a knack for telling an occasional truth. Oh, not often, but often enough that it's fun going through his testimony with a magnifying glass :-)
There is a lot about this case he hasn't told yet. If he ever fesses up, think of all the reputations he'll ruin.
We have them all on record :-) :-)
Well if you think Hammersfahr is a fine ole doc, you're free to visit and take your family to him anytime. I think he's a quack.Lots of people have and they've gotten better. The A&E cable channel had a fairly balanced show about Terri Schiavo back in 2005 (I think a few months after her death) and it showed video of Dr. Hammesfahr's stroke patients going from vegetative to significantly responsive. They weren't ready for Dancing With The Stars, but they were much better than when they arrived at Dr. Hammesfahr's door. Contrast him, an actual healer, with the late Dr. Ronald Cranford. Cranford, for the last 20 years of his "practice", never found a single patient worthy of life. Not one. Alzheimer's? Cranford wanted them put down like dogs (actually, worse than dogs). Minimally conscious state? Cranford wanted them iced. PVS? Cranford wanted them slabbed. I also love your circular reasoning, spunkets, straight out of the "No True Scotsman" fallacy. No true doctor said that Terri was responsive, and if a doctor said she was responsive, then they're not true doctors. Brilliant. An endless loop trap that weak minds fall into.
Incidentally, it is illegal to put somebody to death in Florida just because she is PVS or found to be PVS by a court.I wish that were so, T'wit. Felos and Jim King helped make it legal in 1998, as we know. Doesn't make it right, no moreso than it was when it was done for Baby Knauer.
It is so, at least technically, but the Felos, Greer and King legal team sure ground the law under their heels in Terri's case. Mainly they did it by falsely finding her PVS and by faking her suicide note -- her "wish to die" -- with the help of three Schiavos.
>> Felos and Jim King helped make it legal in 1998, as we know.
They made it a lot easier to bump off old folks and strip their bank accounts. Anyone who retires to Florida after Jim King's "legacy" legislation is out of his mind. The key feature that killed Terri (and will get millions of others) was redefining food and water as life support. Terri wasn't on life support, so they needed this nasty change in the law to murder her.
It's part of the deathtrip rites to attack Dr. Hammesfahr. That undoubtedly speaks well of his work with Terri. In fact it was the only good, professional testing we got.
He got in their way :-)
We should keep in mind that Michael wouldn't permit any testing or any therapy. (Terri's last therapy was in 1992.) That way Michael stood to kill two birds with one stone (so to speak). By denying her testing and therapy, he hastened her death and at the same time reduced costs and stood to inherit more of her money when he got her safely killed off.
The results of this therapy have been so remarkable that Dr. Hammesfahr has written and lectured extensively about it and he has invited physicians, primarily based in universities, to visit the facility and observe first-hand these results. These visits have resulted in several facilities beginning to work with Dr. Hammesfahr to bring these treatments to their clinics. His work has been published in the peer-reviewed web based journal, Lifelines, and requested by several major print medical journals for publication.
"Nope. Guilty as charged. But through all of the research you did to go back to my May ‘05 comments, were you surprised that you could find not a single post in which I supported the starving of Terri?"
Does moving your goalpost tire you greatly or were you just so ashamed to see your past words come to life?
But seriously, I'll be glad to answer your question -- but first, you explain to me how a guy with two daughters, and a son, and a wife (supposedly), can justify a day spent on an agnostically angry 1,430 words...hmmm, at a generous 20 WPM, that puts you down for 71 straight minutes of typing -- alone.
More in the 35 to 40 wpm range, but of course, you’ll just have to take my word for it (which from your previous post, you seem disinclined to do).
I suppose your (self?) righteous anger is somehow an order of magnitude lesser than my agnostic anger. And I’m not even sure what that is. But it sure does seem a different topic that what we were originally talking about (like, moving the goalposts?).
As it happens, since I was a kid I've known a man who went on to do pioneering research and treatment in the field of Hyperbaric Oxygen treatments. So I've found this fascinating for a long time :-) It's somewhat off the beaten track in medicine, -- not too many hospitals have it, -- but certainly is a useful technology (for a lot more than "the bends") and promises more advances in years to come.
Terri should have had it! She suffered a crush injury. This if from the link above for hyperbaric oxygen therapies:
"Crush Injuries: Complications of crush injuries, such as from motor vehicle accidents, falls and gun shots, are very frequent. By increasing oxygen delivery to injured tissues, hyperbaric treatments reduce swelling, improve healing and help fight infection."
That's telling the truth as none of the media would tell it! It makes it clear why George Felos snubbed the neurologists in Florida and imported Ron Cranford from a thousand miles away, in Minnesota. He was an absolutely reliable "vote" for the patient being PVS, regardless of the facts. (I find that rather touching, don't you? When you bought Ron Cranford, he stayed bought.)
Dr. Humane Death stayed alive long enough to attend Art Caplan's Zombie Fest, Death Dance and Terri Snuff-abration at the Univ. of Pennsylvania. The A Team was almost all there -- Cranford, Jay Wolfson, Mary Labyak, the one and only George Greer, Michael Smerconish, and the keynote speaker (!) -- Michael Schiavo himself! (The only key players with the brains to stay away were the lawyers -- George Felos and Debbie Bushnell.)
Yet having said as much, say a prayer for Cranford. I have. I'm afraid he doesn't have many friends now.
Why don’t you state your position now to clarify it for everyone in the thread? Unless cowardice is holding you back...
Semantics. He was recommended for one but apparently not "nominated" in the official Nobel channels. Except for the bureaucracy, the two words -- recommended / nominated -- carry nearly identical meaning for these purposes. Seems to me, it's an outstanding credit to Dr. Hammesfahr whether he was "nominated" or "recommended."
The critics are almost all of the political Left, so this is obviously a pack attack. I also hear a LOT of sour grapes from those of his critics who work in medicine. How many of them have done work that got them recommended for a Nobel in medicine?
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