Posted on 07/03/2006 4:51:05 PM PDT by Alouette
Doctors have proof on how man who was barely conscious for decades woke
Doctors have their first proof that a man who was barely conscious for nearly 20 years regained speech and movement because his brain spontaneously rewired itself by growing tiny new nerve connections to replace the ones sheared apart in a car crash.
Terry Wallis, 42, is thought to be the only person in the United States to recover so dramatically so long after a severe brain injury. He still needs help eating and cannot walk, but his speech continues to improve and he can count to 25 without interruption.
Wallis’ sudden recovery happened three years ago, but doctors said the same cannot be hoped for people in a persistent vegetative state, such as Terry Schiavo, the Florida woman who died last year after a fierce right-to-die court battle. Nor do they know how to make others with less serious damage, like Wallis, recover.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Eggplant...?
"...but doctors said the same cannot be hoped for people in a persistent vegetative state, such as Terry Schiavo..."
Certainly not if you kill them, no.
But good for this guy anyway. Medicine learns something.
Well look, I didn't post the two scans as proof that Terri had no brain function. I'm just saying that if the left and right scans are supposdly the same, they sure look different. And not just in the interior, "brain Damaged" area.
So, like someone posted to me, "Genetics?" Maybe so. Don't apes have lots thicker skulls that humans?
I don't know one way or another but I do wonder if the poster that used this as a valid comparison for normal and abnormal brain scans thinks that the skull on the left is from a human?
I don't know and I don't care. As they say, Ignorance in bliss and I ain't bragging. But unless someone can tell me this is a normal skull on the left and a normal skull on the right then something looks wrong to me.
I'm sure there's a good explanation. Got one?
Do you have the third brain scan of Terri's? The one that shows what it looked like after she was starved/dehydrated to death?
I seem to recall reading about people who have suffered from hydrocephalus having tremendously abnormal brains yet some of them are quite high functioning. There have also been people who have experienced dramatic damage to the brain in accidents and who have maintained a level of function far beyond anything a person whould suggest justifies euthanasia.
Please excuse me for being rude. But I have a call completely unrelated to cat scans and labels. A very simple call.
Terri Schindler could hear her mother's voice and that voice brought her immense joy.
Too bad there's no medical technology or devices we can use to measure what our own senses tell us about emotion in others. (And to tell certain doctors what it means)
No contribution to hijacking this thread, as I am happy for this man's family.
To be very clear, I posted the scans as evidence that Terri had a severely atrophied brain, not that she had no brain function, since she obviously did, or else she would've been dead..
And, I do agree with you that the white edge that should indicate the cranium looks a lot thicker than it seems it should in the Terri Schiavo CT scan. I don't know why.
Oh, and BTW. I kinda do have a dog in this hunt. My Brother, 22yo, died of a brain tumor. Well, actually he died after he fell into a coma and didn't eat or take liquids for two weeks, but what the hell. He stayed in the hospital for 1 1/2 year after his surgery and his family was with him the whole time. He had a very agressive form or cancer and they took a little too much of his brain during surgery. He begged me several times to take him away from the hospital but I didn't. Biggest regret of my life. Oh well.
THat is so wrong LF. I hope you never have an injured or disabled child and have to go what these parents did.
The statement in both the article and the broadcast was crystal clear that his brain was not as severely damaged as hers. Now, you can choose to believe what makes you happy instead, but my comments were predicated on that.
And, at this point I just want to leave this discussion as I've already said. I'm not really interested in it any further. Sorry for being so flippant and dismissive earlier, and goodbye!
Quote from the article: "...Until that is known, imaging cannot be used to predict who will recover, or to help patients’ brains rewire, he said."
This would indicate that showing two apples to apples scan slices would be meaningless.
You need to be careful saying this kind of thoughtless garbage. There have been Freepers banned for it. She was born a human being and was one when she died regardless of how you felt about her case.
Doctors said the same cannot be hoped for people in a persistent vegetative state, such as Terry Schiavo, the Florida woman who died last year after a fierce right-to-die court battle.
One, she was murdered. Two, doctors don't know. Three, we can't even trust that one doctor was asked the specific question about that mockery of diagnosis known as "PVS", and more specifically about the dear Miss Schindler, who was so fiendishly murdered. That is, the reporter or editor may just have thrown in the sentence quoted above, based on fulsome wish and whimsy. And a deadly black wish that is.
And embyros of microgram weight grow to 100 kilograms full adult. Impossible, you'd say, if you'd be less faithful that wonderous logic of death that has taken you in.
Typically, murdering a person puts a damper on future medical treatment.
"the" ?????
Nice post. But AntiGuv is Lord Poobah of brain scans.
(my view is that a verified written statement from the patient should be required in order to withhold treatment in such a case)
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