Coma Sci-Fi? MCS Sci-Fact
House fans remember "Son of Coma Guy?"
CBS News and AP wire reports tell us a woman in a minimally conscious state awoke mysteriously and could immediately eat (including my first choice -- cake), talk, and interact with her family, then fell back into unconsciousness state only three days later.
She had previously been in her minimal conscious state for six years, after succumbing to brain damage following a heart attack. Wire reports state the patient's neurologist is baffled as to why she awoke and was so alert, saying medicine just can't explain these brief visits right now.
So what does this have to do with poor Coma Guy? Definitions are everything.
Fellow blogger Melissa Conrad Stoppler, MD told us earlier this year that in a persistent vegetative state, (the next step after comas), the patient usually sufferers significant debilitating changes including muscular atrophy, so instant recover is near impossible.
MCS is different, thought. The American Academy of Neurology says MCS patients are a subgroup of folks who are not exactly conscious, but don't meet the diagnostic criteria for coma or vegetative state.
So, maybe Coma Guy should really have been named "Minimally Conscious State" Guy?
Related Links: Where's Best Place To Have a Comma? A Soap.
Technorati Tags: vegetativestate, coma, House, HouseMD
CBS News and AP wire reports tell us a woman in a minimally conscious state awoke mysteriously and could immediately eat (including my first choice -- cake), talk, and interact with her family, then fell back into unconsciousness state only three days later.
She had previously been in her minimal conscious state for six years, after succumbing to brain damage following a heart attack. Wire reports state the patient's neurologist is baffled as to why she awoke and was so alert, saying medicine just can't explain these brief visits right now.
So what does this have to do with poor Coma Guy? Definitions are everything.
Fellow blogger Melissa Conrad Stoppler, MD told us earlier this year that in a persistent vegetative state, (the next step after comas), the patient usually sufferers significant debilitating changes including muscular atrophy, so instant recover is near impossible.
MCS is different, thought. The American Academy of Neurology says MCS patients are a subgroup of folks who are not exactly conscious, but don't meet the diagnostic criteria for coma or vegetative state.
"These patients demonstrate inconsistent but discernible evidence of consciousness. It is important to distinguish patients in MCS from those in coma and VS because preliminary findings suggest that there are meaningful differences in outcome."
So, maybe Coma Guy should really have been named "Minimally Conscious State" Guy?
Related Links: Where's Best Place To Have a Comma? A Soap.
Technorati Tags: vegetativestate, coma, House, HouseMD
