Which is what happened to Richard Marsh from California three years ago after a stroke. At the time he could do nothing but blink, and the medical staff were convinced he was in a persistent vegetative state. But his wife Lili didn't agree, and refused to let them end his life.
What a sound decision that was. Four months later he went home, and he has now recovered 95% of his physical functioning. Just suppose his wife had gone along with the doctors and given up on him?
The first sign that he wasn't actually a goner was his twitching fingers. Then the doctors discovered he could communicate by blinking. Only then did they realise their colossal misjudgment.
But this made me think, surely there should be some routine "blink test" to check if a patient in that condition (what they call locked-in syndrome) can communicate by blinking? Then such an awful misunderstanding would never have occurred.
And surely there must be some sort of test of mental functioning that could at least indicate that there is activity beyond a mere vegetative state, even if it can't say exactly what that activity is?
It seems extraordinary that someone's life can be written off so casually when the reality entirely contradicts the doctors' assumptions. Is modern medicine really as advanced and sophisticated as we think it is?
Pic: Someone completely different. I couldn't find a picture of Richard Walsh on the net.
