Scary Truth

Read the article below scares me. What if I was the one hurt? I am going to have to update my will after reading this. Read it and see what you think... Does it scare you as well?

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Coma victim talks via brain scanner
By Clive Cookson in London
Published: February 4 2010 02:00 | Last updated: February 4 2010 02:00

A road accident victim, presumed by his doctors to be in a persistent vegetative state, has answered simple questions by using thought alone, neuroscientists report today. Their study could open up communication with other apparently unconscious patients through brain scanning.

Researchers communicated with the 29-year-old Belgian, who had suffered severe head injuries five years previously, by mapping his brain with an fMRI scanner as he answered questions. He was asked to think of one type of activity if the answer was "Yes" and another activity, which gives a different brain image, if it was "No".
The case, the first scientific report of two-way communication with an apparently vegetative patient, is published in the New England Journal of Medicine by scientists from the University of Liège and the Medical Research Council's Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge.

Adrian Owen of the MRC unit said: "We were astonished when we saw the results of the patient's scan and that he was able to answer correctly the questions that were asked by simply changing his thoughts."

"So far, these scans have proved to be the only viable method for this patient to communicate in any way since his accident," added Steven Laureys of the University of Liège. "It's early days, but in the future we hope to develop this technique to allow some patients to express their feelings and thoughts, control their environment and increase their quality of life."

The unnamed patient is one of 54 people with severe brain injury who took part in the three-year Cambridge-Liège study.

The scientists used the latest super-sensitive fMRI scanners. Four of the vegetative patients, who gave no signs of consciousness or responsiveness on conventional measures, showed "brain activation that reflected some awareness and cognition" when the researchers asked them to imagine doing certain things.
The procedure was pioneered in an earlier study, which received much publicity when it was published in 2006. Then Dr Owen and colleagues showed that an apparently vegetative young women with severe head injuries could imagine playing tennis or walking around her home.

The researchers said the technology was not ready for general clinical use to assess ostensibly unconscious patients, because each session required an elaborate procedure on a £1.2m fMRI machine.

Even if it is restricted to Yes/No answers, the technology could enable "locked-in" patients, whose motor control does not even allow them to communicate by blinking, to let their carers know, for example, whether they want the television or radio switched on or if they need painkillers.

But, as Allan Ropper of the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston writes in the New England Journal: "The first and most obvious use of mental signalling . . could be to preserve the patient's autonomy by querying his or her wishes regarding continuing medical care." In other words, the patient could signal whether he wants to be kept alive or be allowed to die.

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