It doesn’t address it either way. I imagine that speaking with a ventilator is next to impossible. It also states that he made his wife his named surrogate. The COURT removed that power and killed a man that had only suffered congestive heart failure. He wasn’t “a hunk of inert protoplasm sucking in nutrients and excreting as the only characteristics of being alive” as VictoryGal described. And THAT description is what is sending droves of people to sign Living Wills, NOT heart attacks.
The article was quite explicit that he could speak. Here's the quote from the linked article:
Mrs. Pinette objected because her husband 'Hank' was alert and oriented, there was no prognosis tendered that could determine his death was eminent, he spoke (sporadically, but he managed) and he responded physically to her directions and touch.
Sounds to me like the hubby and wife were not on the same page as it relates to his living will, as you will find it very difficult to convince me that the courts would have found in favor of the hospital in direct contradiction to the expressed wishes of the patient.