"Ow. Brain no work."
Posted on 08/14/2013 8:01:14 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A man who had appeared to have been in a vegetative state for 12 years knew his name and knew where he was, Canadian researchers report in a study showing it’s possible to use MRI brain scans to establish communication with people who seem completely unconscious.
Three people tested using a special form of MRI called functional magnetic resonance imaging were able to answer simple “yes” or “no” questions, the team at Western University in London, Ontario report.
They say their findings don’t mean everyone in a coma or a persistent vegetative state is conscious, but it should help doctors find out who is and who isn’t .
“We hope to be able to reach patients who are trapped in their bodies,” says Lorina Naci, a researcher specializing in brain imaging techniques for patients with severe brain injury. “We want to give patients some autonomy in their lives.”
Naci’s team came up with a method for determining whether patients are not just hearing sounds, but able to think clearly about what those sounds mean and answer questions. Other studies have shown that up to 20 percent of patients in various vegetative states can hear and respond on at least some level.
But at least some of the responses seen could be dismissed as simple reflexes, or at best akin to someone in a dream state responding to stimuli. Naci says her team’s findings show that at least some can respond with clear conscious intent.
“The technique may be useful in establishing basic communication with patients who appear unresponsive to bedside examinations and cannot respond with existing neuroimaging methods,” the team wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association journal JAMA Neurology.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
"Ow. Brain no work."
“It isn’t a quality life” is the liberal answer. “Can’t afford it” is another response.
Yet when it comes to a lifetime sentence in an 8’x10’ prison cell, it is “preferable” to the “cruel and inhumane” punishment of a death sentence.
Stalinists lie. Always.
I have a friend who was in near total paralysis after having a major stroke. It took him several weeks to be able to open (and close) his eyes. He could also move one hand (including make a variety of hand gestures). He had some difficulty moving his arm and eventually with muscle atrophy, he lost use of his hand.
I have inquired of friends how he is today (years later) but no one will respond and it seems they are afraid to learn how he lives in care.
He may go “crazy” from his situation after a prolonged period but he was not brain dead.
{insert “FDA Tested on Joe Biden” punchline here}
Had three good days with him before he passed away. He had served 4 US Presidents in ways most of us would never know.
Folks write off the elderly way too easily. Some have good days and bad days, but each day is precious. And each day you give to them is one less year of regrets.
wish this available before the murdered terry schiavo
It was. It just wasn’t available to her. Her parents petitioned the court to have one done, but Greer denied it on the grounds that it was experimental. My husband had one after his stroke in 2008. It was routine at that time.
“I can’t imagine anything more frightening than being conscious trapped inside a body in a vegetative state.”
My husband died of brain cancer. It was a progressive degeneration of his body. Toward the end, his body was paralyzed but he was still able to communicate by blinking his eyes. Then, that capability went away, but I knew he could still hear. Hearing is the last capability to cease functioning.
His mother and brothers stopped visiting when he couldn’t talk and he lasted weeks after that. His sister and I were the only ones who would go see him after he couldn’t talk. It was terrible to see him slowly die but I was there every day and I knew he was aware I was there. My pain watching that was nothing compared to his and that’s what I concentrated on - I would never have left him alone.
Abolishing the death penalty, in my opinion, is just one step along the way to abolishing prisons. Once the death penalty goes, the new target will become life without parole. Then life sentences, and so on.
It’s not a principle. It’s an agenda.
judge greer the husband and his attorney will rot in hell.
the evil btwn these men is mind boggling.
That made my screen go blurry.
“That made my screen go blurry.”
Mine did, too, when I wrote it. It happens every time I think of that terrible time in 2011.
May God bless you.
He was blessed to have such a faithful, devoted wife.
If you have ever eaten a Pringles potato chip, he was the engineer that developed the process to make them all look alike and stack in the tube. See, he touched your life.
If you live in Texas, he wrote the law that the Texas legislature passed that determines how you vote gets counted at the end of the day in the central counting room of your county. Every county has to use his law when choosing people to work in central counting so each party is represented. His law also determines who will be the judge and alternate judge in central counting.
See post 17.
This has been known for a long time, that some are alert and others are not.
I live in Texas and love Pringles, too!
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