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:
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday September 26 2017, @02:55PM (1 child)
OK, so the ethical questions about bringing someone back after 15 years are pertinent now, but if this treatment is shown to be effective then it can be applied to patients as soon as they go into their vegetative state. Once the backlog of people lying comatose for years / decades has been worked through, the question becomes moot.
Which raises another question: Could it be that this treatment would be more effective on someone who is only recently injured than someone who has been flat on their back for 15 years?
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @03:22PM
Perhaps it is. Maybe it isn't.