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from the pathway-to-freedom-or-fate-worse-than-death? dept.
Surgery to embed a nerve-stimulating implant in a patient in a persistent vegetative state (15 years), resulted in the patient reverting to a "minimally conscious" state.
After lying in a vegetative state for 15 years, a 35-year-old male patient in France appears to have regained minimal consciousness following months of vagus nerve stimulation, researchers report today in Current Biology.
The patient, who suffered severe brain damage in a car crash, had shown no signs of awareness or improvement before. He made no apparent purposeful movements and didn't respond to doctors or family at his bedside. But after researchers surgically implanted a device that stimulates the vagus nerve, quiet areas of his brain began to perk up—as did he.
His eyes turned toward people talking and could follow a moving mirror. He turned his head to follow a speaker moving around his bed. He slowly shook his head when asked. When researchers suddenly drew very close to his face, his eyes widened as if he was surprised or scared. When caregivers played his favorite music, he smiled and shed a tear.
Note that "respond" is on the level of "turning his head when asked, though that took a minute."
A few thoughts on this:
- Medical advances are COOL!
- Hopefully, this advance can help some folks.
- This makes ethical questions concerning patients in persistent vegetative states more urgent:
- (e.g. the question of whether/when to pull the plug has become even more confusing)
- This introduces some new ethical questions:
- Is it ethical to "bring back" someone after 15 years? (the world has changed quite significantly)
- Is it ethical to "bring back" someone to a state where they're might just barely be conscious enough to realise how much their state sucks?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bradley13 on Tuesday September 26 2017, @02:20PM (6 children)
Serious question: sanity? If the person was truly unconscious - unaware - for 15 years, it may not be an issue. But if they were "locked in" (aware, but completely unable to respond) for 15 years. What are the chances that they are still sane?
On a vaguely related note: There is also the interesting case of hyperbaric oxygen treatment [livescience.com]. I've linked to a skeptical article, but the doctors in this case claim that a young child's brain was able to regenerate substantial damage.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday September 26 2017, @02:28PM
That's a good point about sanity. But can't they determine if they were "locked in" and aware just by reading brain waves? (Note: IANANS (neuroscientist))
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @05:25PM
That's a strange question to ask. How would sanity in such a circumstance even be defined? In any case, there have been cases of recovery by "locked in" patients after a number of years, not to mention coma patients who report having had a sense of awareness for years. I've never seen anybody make a digestable evaluation of their sanity.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Tuesday September 26 2017, @07:26PM (1 child)
I doubt it would be a big problem. I mean just look at how much time non-locked-in people voluntarily choose to inflict basically the same experience on themselves by watching TV...
And honestly, if you've never done it I'd recommend spending a week or two not interacting with anyone or anything beyond basic self-maintenance.. Just you and your thoughts, until you learn to put them to rest. The first few days are the hardest - after that it starts getting considerably easier and after a few weeks you start wondering how you ever survived the constant nonproductive "busyness" of "normal" life.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 27 2017, @01:52AM
I tried that and that made me an hermite but it did not put my thoughts at rest...
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday September 26 2017, @08:49PM
If you like that thought, you may like this short science fiction story - The Jaunt [wikipedia.org]
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 27 2017, @02:09AM
Didn't our Soylenti mothers tell us to eat our vegetables?