By Michael Cook How do we know that patients with acute brain injuries who seem completely unresponsive really are? Some retain what doctors call “covert consciousness” – but which ones? A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine says that about 15% of such patients are responding to verbal commands in their …
Continue reading "More evidence that people in ‘vegetative states’ may be aware"
By Dave Andrusko In his post for the Catholic Phily, Richard Doerflinger calls new findings and recommendations from a prestigious group of medical organizations nothing short of “game-changing.” Doerflinger, who worked for 36 years in the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is referring to new guidelines from the American …
Continue reading "New “game-changing” findings and recommendations offer new hope to brain-injured patients unfairly labeled “vegetative”"
By Texas Right to Life Most people can imagine no more terrifying scenario than being trapped in their bodies, unable to move or communicate, but fully aware of everything that is happening around them. How would people treat you? Who would make life and death decisions about your care? For some people, this is not …
Continue reading "Study: patients thought to be in “vegetative state” can be aware and responsive but unable to move their bodies"By Dr. Peter Saunders Editor’s note. Dr. Saunders is a former general surgeon and CEO of Christian Medical Fellowship, a UK-based organization with 4,500 UK doctors and 1,000 medical students as members. Tonight’s BBC Panorama will tell the story of a Canadian man who was believed to have been in a vegetative state for more …
Continue reading "BBC Panorama findings will heighten calls for review of Tony Bland judgement"By Wesley J. Smith Patients diagnosed as persistently unconscious may be the most scorned people on earth. I mean, who else could be called a turnip or carrot with impunity? It is within the context of this “unrepentant bigotry” that I analyze a hopeful story about increasing efforts to find the consciousness within the diagnosed …
Continue reading "Finding the Consciousness in “Unconscious” People Worth the Cost?"By Dave Andrusko Late last night the prestigious British medical journal “The Lancet” published a very important study online that further demonstrated that patients diagnosed to be in a persistent vegetative state have either often been misdiagnosed or are sometimes consciously aware even if they are in a PVS. Several of you wrote back in …
Continue reading "The Lancet Study and Terri Schiavo"By Dave Andrusko It’s the end of the week and I am close to the deadline to post National Right to Life News Today for Friday. But it is important that I at least summarize some of the remarkable findings in an article that appeared in Discover Magazine under the headline Rediscovering Consciousness in People …
Continue reading "Unlocking the Mysteries of “Disorders of Consciousness”"