"Brain-dead" boy recovers with video game therapy

[masondoggy]

news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060317/tc_nm/column_pluggedin_dc

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Doctors pronounced Ethan Myers brain dead after a car accident dealt the 9-year-old a severe brain injury in 2002. After he miraculously awoke from a nearly month-long coma, doctors declared he would never again eat on his own, walk or talk.

Yet, thanks partly to a video game system, Myers has caught up with his peers in school and even read a speech to a large group of students.

This article really made me think about Terri Schiavo. It’s so sad to think about how her life may have improved if she had been given the chance.

 

[Eileen_T]

They can’t even agree on the definition of ‘brain death’.

Dr. Paul Byrne, who is the president of the Catholic Medical Association says

"Brain death" is not death. Brain death is not based on data that would be considered valid for any other scientific purpose.

Between 1968 and 1978, at least 30 differing sets of criteria were published, and there have been many more since then.

Every time a new set of criteria is produced it tends to be more open to interpretation and less rigid than earlier sets. Critics such as Dr Byrne have pointed out that none of them is based on the scientific method of observation and hypothesis followed by verification.

 

[CARose]

It really makes me sad that even Drs. who think they’re doing the right thing get caught up in this garbage. What happened to the recognition of the sanctity of life?

CARose

 

[m134e5]

Brain dead is when they cannot function without life support- they have to be on a respirator, among many machines to keep their body processes from stopping because there is nothing telling them to work. The case mentioned in this article is not a case of brain death- the newspaper probably reported it wrong.

 

[Benedictus]

m134e5:

The case mentioned in this article is not a case of brain death- the newspaper probably reported it wrong.

Bingo. Sloppy reporting. I’ve seen a few cases of a person recovering from “brain death” than turned out to be sloppy reporting.

 

[Eileen_T]

m134e5:

Brain dead is when they cannot function without life support- they have to be on a respirator, among many machines to keep their body processes from stopping because there is nothing telling them to work. The case mentioned in this article is not a case of brain death-** the newspaper probably reported it wrong.**

Or the doctors did as often happens.

As I mentioned before, there is no consensus of agreement on the definition of brain death. We have all read of cases where people have been declared brain dead, had their life support switched off and lived, even recovered.

Why not just leave the definition of death to be someone who irreversibly is no longer breathing, has no circulation, and whose heart is no longer beating is dead?

Because in 1968 the idea of “brain death” was devised by a Harvard Medical School Ad Hoc Committee to Examine the Definition of Death.

Henry Beecher, the physician who chaired the ad hoc Committee said, *“Can society afford to discard the tissues and organs of the hopelessly unconscious patient when he could be used to restore the otherwise hopelessly ill, but still salvageable individual? It is best to choose a level where although the brain is dead, usefulness of other organs is still present.”

Now they (bioethicists and others) are considering expanding the definition to include comatose and people considered to be in a persistent vegetative state, so they can harvest their organs.*

 

[masondoggy]

m134e5:

Brain dead is when they cannot function without life support- they have to be on a respirator, among many machines to keep their body processes from stopping because there is nothing telling them to work. The case mentioned in this article is not a case of brain death- the newspaper probably reported it wrong.

I realize that they reported it wrong. But this is the same thing that happened with Terri Schiavo. So many people just throw around the term “brain-dead” with her just as they are doing with this little boy.

WE know they weren’t brain dead. But the pro-death culture out there is labeling them brain-dead in order to dehumanize them and convince everybody that there is no hope and we should give up on them and rip out the feeding tube.

It’s the same terminology strategy they used to gain acceptance for abortion.

 

[masondoggy]

Eileen T:

Or the doctors did as often happens.

*“Can society afford to discard the tissues and organs of the hopelessly unconscious patient when he could be used to restore the otherwise hopelessly ill, but still salvageable individual? It is best to choose a level where although the brain is dead, usefulness of other organs is still present.” *

Now they (bioethicists and others) are considering expanding the definition to include comatose and people considered to be in a persistent vegetative state, so they can harvest their organs.

:nope:
We’re all in trouble…