We all know that if someone goes into a coma for to long they can become brain dead, which leaves their families with difficult decision to make. Well as it turns out there may be some type of activity in the brains of patients in a deep coma. Some researchers from the University of Montreal of discovered oscillations of the hippocampus ( the part of the brain that is responsible for learning processes and memory) while performing an EEG on deep coma cats. The whole reason they started this research was because a doctor found these type of oscillations of one of his coma patients and didn't know how to explain them.
Although they did find the oscillations, they said that families that have decided to unplug near brain dead relatives should not be mad at the doctors because this new discovery is no where near understood. As of now the criteria for labeling someone as "brain dead" is still the same. These researchers have just begun to scratch the surface of this discovery. It would be amazing if this discovery could lead to a way to reverse those patients that are labeled " brain dead", but as of now all we can do is wait and hope.
Article link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130918180246.htm
Wow this is kind of scary! Hopefully more research on these findings will help to explain this phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteWhat actually constitutes someone as brain dead, then? It seems, from what these scientists are finding, like there really wasn't ever a real clue as to when the coma patients lost their ability to think.
ReplyDeleteIf this is possible to do in the near future, does this technically mean that they are bringing people back from the dead? Imagine that, zombies!
ReplyDeleteBut in all seriousness, this would be great for those families who had to endure the pain of almost losing a love one.
This post hits close to home for me. Just under a year ago, my cousin faced severe trauma which left him on life support and brain-dead. When we lost my cousin, I knew that due to the severity of the trauma, there likely was no "recovery" that would occur, and over time our family came to peace with what happened. While my cousin wasn't in a coma, I can only begin to imagine what the families with loved ones in that situation must be feeling. Having this sort of information to better "confirm" brain activity or lack thereof would be immensely beneficial I feel. Having that sort of decision facing you cannot be easy, so being given a better explanation of the prognosis of comatose individuals could help the process. This is also greatly beneficial to the medical world, as this data can help scientists to better understand what goes on in the brain of comatose patients and why this even occurs to begin with.
ReplyDeleteThis new research is going to bring hopes to so many families across the country and world that have family members they thought they could never talk with again. My only concern would be how many people with family members in comas right now will leave these loved ones in their assumed vegetated state until the research has made more progress? How many people can remain in hospitals in comas before it gets crowded? My mother has always told me if she ever gets into a state like that, that she doesn't want to live like that. How long is okay to keep someone in deep coma in hopes of this research making progress?
ReplyDeleteOf course, I'm being devil's advocate here, I don't know how I could ever consent to saying good-bye to loved one knowing it was my decision and knowing if there was new research that could bring them back. I would think what's best for them, what would they want.