What do you mean by “brain dead”?
I do admire doctors and scientists for their learning. I am impressed by how much they understand God’s creation (whether they recognize the Creator or not). But I always enjoy this kind of story which shows just how little they really do know:
According to all the tests, the young woman was deep in a “vegetative state” — completely unresponsive and unaware of her surroundings. But then a team of scientists decided to do an unprecedented experiment, employing sophisticated technology to try to peer behind the veil of her brain injury for any signs of conscious awareness.Without any hint that she might have a sense of what was happening, the researchers put the woman in a scanner that detects brain activity and told her that in a few minutes they would say the word “tennis,” signaling her to imagine she was serving, volleying and chasing down balls. When they did, the neurologists were shocked to see her brain “light up” exactly as an uninjured person’s would. It happened again and again. And the doctors got the same result when they repeatedly cued her to picture herself wandering, room to room, through her own home.
And in a related story, Michelle Malkin covered this last week:
Child abuse victim Haleigh Poutre, once deemed to be “virtually brain dead” by medical experts, continues to improve and is even speaking a few words, her biological grandmother said this week.
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- Pete’s Pond (October 15th, 2006)
September 9th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
I heard this story on NPR and it caught my interest too. NPR also interviewed a doctor who often provides “expert testimony” to courts to determine if people who are in a “vegetative state” (I hate that term) should be removed from life support. The reporter asked him if this new finding would have any effect on his next testimony and he said he would recommend this type of scan be done.
September 12th, 2006 at 10:03 am
[…] See also What do you mean by brain-dead? from earlier this month. […]