Wow. An unimaginably horrific experience, no doubt-- but man what that says for human resilience. How does a mind even survive that without going insane? How do you even make peace with your life? It's not as if you can end it all.

I hope he finishes his book because I'd like to know his personal philosophy. Seems that it would be all too easy to become an extremely nasty or depressed person, yet I don't get that impression from the article. I'm most curious to know whether or not he remembers much of it or whether or not (because of lack of stimulation and the sameness of the environment) a lot of his memories have run together.

What do you folks think this will do to the whole vegetative state / assisted suicide debate?

Folks who thought Terri Schiavo should have been saved will point to this as evidence of the correctness of their position without noting that the brain scans of this man showed almost normal when hers showed almost no brain remained. The rational response would be to give people diagnosed as being in a vegetative state additional brain scans, but that would drive up health care costs. ... studies found that "up to 43 percent of patients with disorders of consciousness are erroneously assigned a diagnosis of vegetative state." How many such patients are there? The article doesn't say. That suggests the point is to scare people with the fear of being trapped in their body, like being buried alive. As far as exploring that condition goes, maybe it's time to rent The Diving Bell and the Butterfly?

I just read P.Z Myers' blog. This may not be all that it has been made out to be. Maybe he is conscious, but they are using facilitated communication to communicate with him. If you watch the CNN video, it is hard not to be skeptical that he is saying everything that they say he is saying.

Quote: Original post by Wavinator

What do you folks think this will do to the whole vegetative state / assisted suicide debate?

After the whole Terri faisco, I told all of my friends that if I ever got into that state, just to kill me.

In addition, if I was ever paralyzed from the neck down, I'd probably vote to just kill myself as well...

There's no fun in not walking around in life :(

Little people through the history of mankind as considered human life worth preserving. I mean, councious people dies every second of starvation, in wars, etc, and most of us give a fuck about them.

If anything, this will set a legal basis for not unpluging people in vegetative state at once and if applied will be mostly for money interests.

There is a point in people's growth when idealism and the belief in love enters a vegetative state that never wakes up again. And that's sad, me thinks.

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Quote: Original post by Dave
Reminds me of stories i've read about people who havn't been given the correct proportions of the components of anesthetic and have gone through surger unable to tell anyone that they can feel everything that is being done to them.

I've always wondered if that really happens, or if it's just an urban legend used to needlessly scare people that needs surgery.

Scary enough, it is true. I don't think it is usually because of wrong proportions. I just think that some people have different borders of consciousness, and what has one person under only has another paralyzed. I believe it is called something like anesthetic awareness, and it is quite scary sounding.

It is pretty rare though, with only a few cases ever reported.

Indeed, the problem is that during surgery there are usually three different kinds of anaesthesia used: induction anaethesia, used to put the patient to sleep, general anaesthesia used to keep the patient unaware, and a paralytic used to induce muscular paralysis and relaxation. The indiction anaesthesia is usually quick acting but only lasts a few minutes, enough for the anaesthesiologist to intubate the patient and begin the general. The general anaesthetic is also short-lasting and must be continuously administered in the correct proportions. If the anaesthesiologist is not paying attention (in one famous case he was doing a crossword) the patient can come to an aware waking state but remains paralysed due to the paralytic component and unable to communicate.

Grim, but documented.

To build on what's been said, this phenomena is most common among red-haired individuals. I remember hearing of one case where such a woman was going through eye surgery and this happened. "Ouch!" doesn't do this justice.

Quote: Original post by supamike
Reminded me of an old movie I watched, can't remember the name (was it Hellraiser??), where some guy made a pact with the devil or something to help them out, in exchange for immortality. Once his end of the deal was done, the devil granted the wish, but then enclosed the newly immortal guy in a hole behind an impenetrable brick wall, to spend all eternity.

That's gotta mess with your head.

I dunno. I think think the worst punishment would be to teleport someone to a super giant, face-down. First, the immense gravitational field would keep you there. Second, you wouldn't be able to see anything (It'd be black to you.). On the other hand, immortalily would probably let you still breathe, and, I suppose, you'd become numb to be heat.

The comments on this rendition of the story seem to suggest that the story has been exaggerated due to controversy surrounding facilitated communication. I wish I knew more about medicine to get a good grasp on all this.

Quote: Original post by nilkn
The comments on this rendition of the story seem to suggest that the story has been exaggerated due to controversy surrounding facilitated communication. I wish I knew more about medicine to get a good grasp on all this.

I'd take any comments on Daily Mail articles with a pinch of salt. That said, I do agree that the news footage did look a bit suspect - but I'm no medical expert.

i would give him one of those brain controlled game controllers. some of them have shown quite accurate movement possible. give that to him to let him enter words, or even move a motorized weelchair around.

and owl, i love your statement

Quote: There is a point in people's growth when idealism and the belief in love enters a vegetative state that never wakes up again. And that's sad, me thinks.

true, and sad. i try to fight that every day. but the older, the harder it gets.