This changes everything. Maybe we can stop declaring people “dead” and starving them. Please.
Unless you’ve had someone you love in the hospital you may not realize how many patients are starved to death or overdosed to death on a regular basis. It’s a matter of course nowadays.
The BBC reports:
A Canadian man who was believed to have been in a vegetative state for more than a decade, has been able to tell scientists that he is not in any pain.
It’s the first time an uncommunicative, severely brain-injured patient has been able to give answers clinically relevant to their care.
Scott Routley, 39, was asked questions while having his brain activity scanned in an fMRI machine.
His doctor says the discovery means medical textbooks will need rewriting.
Vegetative patients emerge from a coma into a condition where they have periods awake, with their eyes open, but have no perception of themselves or the outside world.
Mr Routley suffered a severe brain injury in a car accident 12 years ago.
None of his physical assessments since then have shown any sign of awareness, or ability to communicate.
But the British neuroscientist Prof Adrian Owen – who led the team at the Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario – said Mr Routley was clearly not vegetative.
“Scott has been able to show he has a conscious, thinking mind. We have scanned him several times and his pattern of brain activity shows he is clearly choosing to answer our questions. We believe he knows who and where he is.”
Prof Owen said it was a groundbreaking moment.
“Asking a patient something important to them has been our aim for many years. In future we could ask what we could do to improve their quality of life. It could be simple things like the entertainment we provide or the times of day they are washed and fed.”
Scott Routley’s parents say they always thought he was conscious and could communicate by lifting a thumb or moving his eyes. But this has never been accepted by medical staff.
HT Pewsitter
November 15, 2012 at 5:46 am
I suggest everybody read this commentary from Front Page Magazine on health care. The future is grim:
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/joseph-hippolito/tyranny-of-the-healthy/
November 15, 2012 at 3:30 pm
This is great news. Of course, the culture of death crowd will say this is just an anomaly, and continue their barbaric practices (yes, I feel cynical today).
November 15, 2012 at 3:57 pm
Thank God this man's family never gave up hope for him, or he would have been harvested for organs by now!
November 15, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Does not matter under Obamacare. He/she will be euthanized one way or another.
November 15, 2012 at 4:20 pm
My first pastor told a story of being at the bedside of a man supposed to be in a vegetative state. When he finished his prayer with "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit" the man crossed himself and said "Amen".
November 16, 2012 at 4:59 am
'vegetative state' is not the same as brain dead
November 18, 2012 at 9:46 am
@Joseph D'Hippolito: among civilized people, when one is plugging one's own work, one acknowledges the fact.
But I'm sure you'll say that's just what the priests want you to think. Tell me, you wear a tinfoil hat to keep out Vatican mind-control beams, don't you?