by APFLI | Apr 29, 2016 | Diagnosis - Brain Function / Coma / Persistant Vegetative State / Locked In Syndrome / Awakenings, Euthanasia / Assisted Suicide - Archive
Comment: I saw this myself even in the early 1970s (before “vegetable” became a diagnosis) when some of our trauma and coma patients unexpectedly started to respond when we talked to and cared for them as if they were fully awake. We were surprised and...
by APFLI | May 16, 2015 | Euthanasia / Assisted Suicide - Archive
We have always been told there is no recovery from persistent vegetative state. But 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....
by APFLI | May 16, 2015 | Euthanasia / Assisted Suicide - Archive
Bioethicists attempting to define people in supposed PVS as “brain dead” and source of organs Many people will have read the story of Rom Houben, the Belgium man who was diagnosed as being in a permanent vegetative state (PVS) for 23 years, but who in fact...
by APFLI | May 16, 2015 | Treatment Concerns - Definitions / Living Wills / Palliative Care / Terminal or Excessive Sedation / Organ Donation / DCD or NHBD / Hospice / POLST / DNR
Brain-damaged patients who appear to have lost signs of conscious awareness might still be able to create new memories — showing signs of new neural networks and potential for partial recovery, a new study shows. In patients who have survived severe brain...