Don’t Pull That Plug Too Soon!!

It has long been presumed that a person in a vegetative state is unable to communicate.  After all, the person cannot talk, write, gesture, etc.

Nonetheless, a recent study reveals that the person may be able to communicate by using thoughts which can be detected by brain imaging.

Here are some excerpts from the report, Vegetative patient ‘communicates’, BBC News, Sept. 7, 2006:

She was diagnosed as being in a vegetative state, which meant even when she was awake, she was unresponsive.

While her brain was being mapped, the researchers asked her to imagine simple tasks, such as walking around her home and playing tennis.  * * *

When the scientists compared her brain activity to that of healthy patients, who had been asked to carry out the same task, they discovered the patterns were “indistinguishable”. * * *

The finding that vegetative patients may experience awareness of their surroundings will fuel the ethical and legal arguments that surround some vegetative state cases.

Special thanks to Neil E. Hendershot of the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania law firm of Goldberg Katzman, P.C., who authors the PA Elder, Estate & Fiduciary Law Blog, for pointing out this article to me.