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posted by martyb on Tuesday September 26 2017, @01:57PM   Printer-friendly
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?

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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 26 2017, @02:56PM (9 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 26 2017, @02:56PM (#573152) Journal

    Can they remove some nerve tissue and make people less aware?

    Oh, wait - they've already done that by giving people "smart phones". Never mind . . .

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  • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @03:52PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @03:52PM (#573200)

    How is this informative.

    You are part of that group of old people that sit around at burger king every morning drinking endless cups of coffee arent you. I bet your old fogies friends voted you up on this. Stupid whippersnappers and their phones.

  • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @03:55PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @03:55PM (#573202)

    I don't know what the hell you're talking about. Internet-enabled smart phones have made people a lot more aware. They're more aware of news. They're more aware of politics. They're more aware of their surroundings, thanks to the maps and GPS that nearly all smart phones offer. If anyone is less aware, it appears to be you! You aren't aware of how smart phones have made other people so much more aware!

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 26 2017, @04:30PM (5 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 26 2017, @04:30PM (#573223) Journal

      I guess I can counter each of your claims easily enough.

      News - mostly from echo chamber main stream media.
      Politics - again, echo chamber main stream media.
      Surroundings? You really threw in awareness of surroundings? People with their noses to the screens are hurtling past you on the highway - you only HOPE that they are aware of you. People are so aware of their surroundings, that they need a smartphone to tell them where to get a cup of coffee. Maps and GPS are necessary, BECAUSE people can't be bothered to remember how to get home.

      Awareness and computer literacy aren't exactly synonymous, youngster. You may or may not be more computer literate than I, but I can go anywhere you can go, WITHOUT gluing my nose to a screen. What's more, I'll actually see the sights along the way.

      My favorite talk show hosts were making fun of some people at a football game. There the people sat, in the bleachers, with a game in progress - and less than half the people were watching the game they had paid to watch. More than half had their heads down, looking at their electronic device.

      You may live in a different world than I live in, but don't think for one moment that you are somehow "more aware" than me, or my generation.

      Let's try this. We meet up in Times Square, in New York. No phones, no maps, no GPS, no nothing. You get a car, I get a car, and money for gas. We drive to Balboa Park in San Diego. You don't get to cheat and follow me, either. You navigate your way across the continent, based on your knowledge of the USA. Can you do it? I have no way to verify that you can or cannot do that relatively minor task - but how many of your generation can do it? Not very damned many, that's for sure. You are dependent on your devices.

      • (Score: 5, Touché) by Grishnakh on Tuesday September 26 2017, @04:39PM (4 children)

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Tuesday September 26 2017, @04:39PM (#573236)

        Let's try this. We meet up in Times Square, in New York. No phones, no maps, no GPS, no nothing. You get a car, I get a car, and money for gas. We drive to Balboa Park in San Diego. ... You navigate your way across the continent, based on your knowledge of the USA. Can you do it? ... how many of your generation can do it? Not very damned many, that's for sure. You are dependent on your devices.

        Your generation is pathetically dependent on your devices: you need a motorcar to get around? You can't even walk, or ride a horse? And you have to use roads instead of navigating by compass or using the stars? Whippersnapper. You probably wouldn't even survive without manufactured clothing; can you even make your own clothes?

        • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 26 2017, @05:04PM (3 children)

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 26 2017, @05:04PM (#573257) Journal

          Actually, I can walk. I would prefer to ride a horse. And, I'll get to Balboa Park, either way.

          Compass, no problem. I'm far from the best of stargazers, but I can find the dippers and tne North Star.

          Now, clothing, you've got me on. I've made clothes, from cloth - that is manufactured cloth. But, no, I've never made my own yard, never made my own cotton or homespun, or hemp fabric. So long as you permit me to use manufactured cloth, yes, I can make clothing. That would delay my departure from Times Square though.

          • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @05:19PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @05:19PM (#573268)

            #lifefailure
            #learn2knit
            #geezerswtweezers

          • (Score: 2) by curunir_wolf on Tuesday September 26 2017, @07:21PM (1 child)

            by curunir_wolf (4772) on Tuesday September 26 2017, @07:21PM (#573410)

            Cotton? Hemp? Wouldn't it be easier just to find an animal with plenty of fur and wear THAT?

            Actually, hemp or any fibrous plant is easy to work with. You don't need to spin it into cloth, you just braid it into string and do a cross-hatch. I've made sandals that way.

            --
            I am a crackpot
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @09:08PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @09:08PM (#573503)

              Clothes! When I were a lad we grew hair if we wanted to be born. Pushed it out by sheer willpower. Don't give me "clothes" littl'un.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @04:33PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @04:33PM (#573229)

    That research is already complete, most of it done in the 1930-1960 date range. [wikipedia.org] It was shown effective at treating violent psychosis, persistent chronic pain, and hysteria; its developers were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine of 1949. Patients reported some loss of spontaneity, responsiveness, self-awareness and self-control following the operation, with a post-operative mortality rate as low as 5%. [1]

    Its use as a procedure was discontinued following allegations that it was being applied in undue proportion to women and minorities. [2] Its use has largely been replaced by antipsychotic medications.

    [1] Other side effects include (but are not limited to) confusion, incontinence, increased appetite, considerable weight gain, aphasia, and seizures.

    [2] I was tempted to make a sarcastic "this is why we can't have nice things" remark here, but the tone of my post is already dangerously close to Poe's Law territory. For the humor impaired, the above post is a work of satire, intending to be both informative and darkly humorous. The author does not support brain damage as a medical treatment, and supports efforts to shine light on unequal treatment of the disadvantaged.