Cracks start to show in ‘vegetative state’ diagnosis

Cracks start to show in ‘vegetative state’ diagnosis | LifeSiteNews.com: A Discover magazine article published online July 6 explained that PVS often fails to account for a broad swath of traumatic brain injury patients who are deemed to be “still in there” - a conclusion one science reporter called “haunting.”

Discover’s Kat McGowan examined the outcome of years of experiments by Dr. Joseph Giancino, director of rehabilitation neuropsychology at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and Nicholas Schiff, a Weill Cornell Medical Center neurologist, as they probed the distinction between reflexes and “real cognition” in patients who appear to have little communion with the outside world.

“These are human beings who seem to have lost their humanity,” Giacino told the magazine. “The question is, is that really the case?” Several studies, one as late as 2009, have found that as many as 41 percent of PVS patients had some level of awareness, and the evidence keeps building. However, the bright prospects may be dimmed by prejudice against the disabled.