Posts Tagged ‘coma’
Indian Court rules that comatose life can be ended passively
In a path-breaking judgement, the Supreme Court today allowed “passive euthanasia” of withdrawing life support to patients in permanently vegetative state but rejected outright active euthanasia of ending life through administration of lethal substances.
Refusing mercy killing of Aruna Shanbaug, lying in a vegetative state for 37 years in a Mumbai hospital, a two-judge bench of justices Markandeya Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra, laid a set of tough guidelines under which passive euthanasia can be legalised through high court monitored mechanism.
The apex court while framing the guidelines for passive euthanasia asserted that it would now become the law of the land until Parliament enacts a suitable legislation to deal with the issue…
The apex court said though there is no statutory provision for withdrawing life support system from a person in permanently vegetative state, it was of the view that “passive euthanasia” could be permissible in certain cases for which it laid down guidelines and cast the responsibility on high courts to take decisions on pleas for mercy killings.
Overdue. Not only in India, of course; but, most civilized nations should have reached palliative conclusions on such questions by now. Only interference from those whose devotion to religion outweighs consideration for human beings generally oppose humane alternatives to a lingering death.
This woman’s body has been kept alive in a vegetative coma for 37 years. Absurd. This may illustrate what an efficient piece of meat machinery the human body is. It has little bearing upon life and consciousness, sanity or civil health.
One more instance of why you should take care of establishing a living will before the choice is removed from you or your loved ones.
Boob Doctors charged in porn star’s death
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission
Two doctors who performed breast enlargement surgery on a German porn actress have been charged with negligent manslaughter after the woman’s death, a prosecutor’s spokesman said.
The 23-year-old woman, identified only as “Sexy Cora,” fell into a coma during the surgery at the Alster Clinic in Hamburg on January 11, according to Wilhelm Moellers, the spokesman for the Hamburg state prosecutor. She died Thursday.
Doctors who responded to an emergency call to the clinic called police and filed charges that started the investigation of the clinic, Moellers said.
A statement from the clinic said the doctors were “extremely upset and deeply regret the death of patient C.W.” and that they are giving “full and complete support” to investigators.
“As matters stand currently a defect in the anesthetizing device can be ruled out,” the clinic statement said. “The claim that the monitoring could have given readings other than the actual vital functions of the patient has nothing to do with the facts and has no connection to reality…”
“Erroneous behavior by the doctors is unproven and at this point just an ‘assessment’ by one of the emergency medical personnel who’d brought Ms. W to the University Clinic Hamburg,” the clinic said…
Everyone’s standing in line, jostling each other to be certain the world knows they’re not to blame.
“Coma” patient screamed for help – unheard – for 23 years
After 3 years of therapy, Rom Houben communicates via touchscreen – with 1 finger
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission
For 23 years Rom Houben was imprisoned in his own body. He saw his doctors and nurses as they visited him during their daily rounds; he listened to the conversations of his carers; he heard his mother deliver the news to him that his father had died. But he could do nothing. He was unable to communicate with his doctors or family. He could not move his head or weep, he could only listen.
Doctors presumed he was in a vegetative state following a near-fatal car crash in 1983. They believed he could feel nothing and hear nothing. For 23 years.
Then a neurologist, Steven Laureys, who decided to take a radical look at the state of diagnosed coma patients, released him from his torture. Using a state-of-the-art scanning system, Laureys found to his amazement that his brain was functioning almost normally.
Laureys…discovered that although Houben was completely paralysed, he was also completely conscious — it was just that he was unable to communicate the fact…
Houben realised when he came round after his accident, which had caused his heart to stop and his brain to be starved of oxygen for several minutes, that his body was paralysed. Although he could hear every word his doctors spoke, he could not communicate with them.
“I screamed, but there was nothing to hear,” he said, via his keyboard…
Laureys concluded that coma patients are misdiagnosed “on a disturbingly regular basis”. He examined 44 patients believed to be in a vegetative state, and found that 18 of them responded to communication.
“Once someone is labelled as being without consciousness, it is very hard to get rid of that,” he told Der Spiegel.
Here is a medical instance where extra attention, additional testing over time, may produce dramatic results. Very different from care designed only to extend the process of dying.
The story is terrible – of course – 23 years trapped inside indifference because no one knew he was alive and conscious within a dysfunctional body. RTFA. And join the world of praise for Steven Laureys whose care and curiosity reopened the door to life for Rom Houben.
