'Vegetative State' Man Responds to Questions

[tekisui]

Source: CNN

London, England (CNN) -- A man presumed to have been in a vegetative state for five years has communicated with the outside world for the first time since suffering severe head injuries in a car crash, researchers said Thursday.

The finding by British and Belgian researchers has huge implications for the care and treatment of patients in a coma-like state. It comes two months after a Belgian car crash victim whose condition was misdiagnosed as a vegetative state for 23 years was revealed to have been conscious the whole time.

Before the latest experiment the 29-year-old Belgian patient, who had his accident in 2003, had shown no sign of being aware of the outside world.

Five years ago doctors believed he slipped from a coma to a vegetative state, leaving his body functioning but without his personality or consciousness.

The researchers, based at Cambridge and Liege universities, realized that diagnosis was wrong when the man responded to questions about his life as scientists monitored activity in his brain.

Using a scanning technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the patient's brain activity was mapped while he was asked to answer "yes" or "no" to questions such as "Is your father's name Thomas?"

The patient communicated answers by willfully changing his brain activity.

more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/04/vegetative.state/?hpt=Sbin

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. Where is the TV remote control? We know you had it last. Where is the TV remote control?

It will be interesting to read more about this in the future.

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. Shit. I thought this was a George W. Bush thread.

[leftofcool]

3. That was so low. I love it!

[wordpix]

10. lololol - thanks

[Lasher]

4. Send a video to Catkiller Fritz

He'll know what to do.

[Lance_Boyle]

5. Yep. So do dead salmon. fMRI quackery

from people who do not know how to interpret their results in a meaningful way.

[shraby]

6. I must be reading this wrong..it says he was misdiagnosed

as a vegetative state for 23 years, then in the next sentence it says he had his accident in 2003. My calculator says that the time between 2003 and 2010 is 7 years...not 23.

[Rebubula]

7. Since...

...your avatar is of the Lizard King, I will be polite in my response....

The article referred to a Belgium man that was in a PVS for 23 years and is communicating through assisted communication (which is controversial at best) as a comparison in length of vegetative states and 'miracle' recoveries. The main subject of this story was injured 7 years ago.

Peace Frog.

[shraby]

9. Sorry, but my avatar is not the Lizard King.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

8. Gary Dockery awoke from a PVS after 7.5 years was able to speak. Interesting case.

Some interesting tidbits here.

Generally, adults have a 50 percent chance and children a 60 percent chance of recovering consciousness from a PVS within the first 6 months. After a year, the chances that a PVS patient will regain consciousness are very low and most patients who do recover consciousness experience significant disability. The longer a patient is in a PVS, the more severe the resulting disabilities are likely to be. Rehabilitation can contribute to recovery, but many patients never progress to the point of being able to take care of themselves. Recovery after long periods of time in a PVS has been reported on several occasions and are often treated as spectacular events.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_vegetative_state