CNN.com - Guardian: Schiavo Improvement Unlikely - Dec. 3, 2003 for the Florida woman at the center of a rightto-die controversy said in hiscourt-ordered report that she is in a persistent vegetative state with no http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/12/02/schiavo.report/
Extractions: Michael Schiavo suspects bulimia caused wife's collapse Court challenge expected Judge maintains feeding tube ... Husband moves to block parents YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS Jeb Bush Florida Lawsuits Crime, Law and Justice or Create your own Manage alerts What is this? (CNN) On the eve of Terri Schiavo's 40th birthday, the independent guardian appointed for the Florida woman at the center of a right-to-die controversy said in his court-ordered report that she is in a persistent vegetative state with no likelihood of improvement. Dr. Jay Wolfson, Schiavo's court-appointed legal advocate, submitted his report to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush Monday. His findings were made public Tuesday. Wolfson also recommended that more testing be done in the case to satisfy the contentious nature of the litigation. Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo, says he is following his wife's wishes to let her die, while her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, are fighting to keep their daughter alive.
Dorlands Medical Dictionary persistent vegetative state, a condition of profound nonresponsiveness in the wakefulstate caused by brain damage at whatever level and characterized by a http://www.mercksource.com/pp/us/cns/cns_hl_dorlands.jspzQzpgzEzzSzppdocszSzuszS
Persistent Vegetative State Article on persistent vegetative state from WorldHistory.com, licensedfrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. persistent vegetative state. http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/p/persistent-vegetative-state.htm
Extractions: World History (home) Encyclopedia Index Localities Companies Surnames ... This Week in History A persistent vegetative state (or PVS) is a condition of patients with severe brain damage in whom coma has progressed to a state of "wakefulness without awareness". The term was introduced by two doctor s in 1972 to describe a syndrome that seemed to have been made possible by medicine 's increased capacities to keep patients' bodies alive. A persistent vegetative state is not the same as coma , the major distinction being that coma sufferers cannot breathe on their own. Patients in a persistent vegetative state are usually considered to be unconscious and unaware, but exhibit sleep-wake cycles and some behaviors that can be construed as arising from partial consciousness, such as grinding their teeth, swallowing, smiling, shedding tears, grunting, moaning, or screaming without any apparent external stimulus . Their heads and eyes can track moving objects or turn towards a sound . Commonly, close family members who visit the patient frequently will detect evidence of awareness when doctors with limited patient contact will deny it. Many people have recovered from PVS, and there is evidence that eye tracking is often the earliest symptom of recovery. PVS is not recognized as death Persistent Vegetative State This source accepts the unawareness of all PVS sufferers and advocates removing life support THE PERMANENT VEGETATIVE STATE; ETHICAL CRUX, MEDICAL FICTION? By Chris Borthwick
Coma - Vegetative State. In other cases, the person descends into a vegetative state. If this lastslonger than a month or so, it is known as a persistent vegetative state. http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Coma_vegetative_s
Meetings: Clinical Neurosciences Section Back to top. June 2004. Thursday 3 June persistent vegetative state, HughlingsJackson lecture AGM North Hall. 9.00 am. Registration Coffee. http://www.rsm.ac.uk/academ/smtcn.htm
Extractions: Addresses the medical facts, describes the landmark cases that have led to research into this condition, defends the position that it is ethical and moral to discontinue life-sustaining treatment of patients, and offers links to other sources of information concerning this condition. World Medical Association [rate it] [review it]
Neuropathol Of Tony Bland Return to February 1995 CMQ. Neuropathological findings in cases of PersistentVegetative State. References Tudor M. persistent vegetative state. http://www.catholicdoctors.org.uk/CMQ/Feb_1995/neuropath_tony_bland.htm
Extractions: Persistent Vegetative State. The medical condition of Anthony Bland and the legal decisions relating to the discontinuation of his tube feeding received prominent media attention. This journal has already covered some aspects of that debate, including a review of the persistent vegetative state (PVS) by a Guild member expert in its treatment and rehabilitation. Sadly many used the case to try and advance the cause of euthanasia. To try and justify the decisions being made some individuals, including a doctor, made statements to the media that Tony Bland's brain was now liquified. The Guild has received permission from Tony Bland's parents to publish details of the pathological findings of Tony's brain. We are also grateful to the coroner and pathologists involved for releasing their reports to us. This short paper will describe the findings in Tony Bland's brain and will make comparisons to that of Karen Quinlan - an earlier case of PVS from the America which received widespread publicity during passage of its legal proceedings. Tony Bland, at the age of 18, suffered an episode of cerebral anoxia subsequent to the crush injuries he received during the Hillsborough disaster on 15th April 1989. He was subsequently diagnosed as suffering from PVS. On the 4th February 1993, the Law Lords upheld the decision of lower courts that it was legal for the doctors to withdraw the nutrition and hydration on which he was dependant. He died at 2115hrs on 3rd March 1993. The post mortem showed a degree of cachexia with a body weight of 36 kgs. There were flexion contractures of the arms, right wrist and fingers as well as flexion and adduction of the left thigh and bilateral plantar flexion of both feet, more marked on the right. Examination of internal organs showed bronchopneumonia, pyelitis, cystitis and a periprostatic fistula with loculated pus.
Catholic Health East: Ethics Topics Medical Aspects of the persistent vegetative state Second of two parts. MedicalAspects of the persistent vegetative state Part one of two. http://www.che.org/ethics/topics.php?id=191
Thieme: Detailseite: The Post-Traumatic Vegetative State Zu diesem Werk. Practical text encompassing over 20 years of work withpatients in a persistent vegetative state; This title bridges http://www.thieme.de/detailseiten/313130071x.html
Extractions: The authors have compiled into a practical text their experiences encompassing over 20 years of work in the rehabilitation of patients in a persistent vegetative state. In addition to the partial or complete recovery of mental and neurological functions, another condition has been gaining in recognition in recent years: the state of minimal responder, which they elucidate in their book. This title bridges a gap in the specialized literature by providing neurologists, emergency physicians, physiatrists, and internists, as well as therapists, with a new set of tools to aid them in obtaining more rapid progress in the treatment of these patients, whose improvement is wholly dependent upon them.
Should Cases Of Permanent Vegetative State Still Go To Court? However, in 1996 the Court of Session declared that not every case of persistentvegetative state in Scotland need come to court, but later the Lord Advocate http://www.studentbmj.com/back_issues/1199/editorials/397.html
Extractions: Should cases of permanent vegetative state still go to court? Britain should follow other countries and keep the courts for cases of dispute Since the judgments in the Tony Bland case in 1993 it has been necessary to obtain high court approval before withdrawing artificial nutrition and hydration from a patient in a permanent vegetative state. There have been 18 cases in England and one in Scotland, and Wade and Johnston have reviewed the medical and legal procedures involved. A consensus exists in many countries that such treatment withdrawal is medically, morally, and legally appropriate, but only in the United Kingdom is a court appearance required before this can be done. May it not be time to change this practice? In the Bland case the Master of the Rolls and four of the five judges in the House of Lords indicated that their recommendation that future cases should each come to court was to be an interim measure until a body of medical expertise and practice had been built up and public confidence established. In early 1995 the Law Commission proposed that in future court approval might be replaced by a certificate from an independent medical practitioner, appointed for that purpose by the Secretary of State.
Vegetative State? Not Fiona! Englishwoman Fiona Smith is supposed to be dead. Well, maybe just in a persistentvegetative state. But she is alive and well today. So what happened? http://www.righttoliferoch.org/nvegsmith.htm
Extractions: Vegetative state? Not Fiona! Rochester Area Right To Life Englishwoman Fiona Smith is supposed to be dead. Well, maybe just in a persistent vegetative state. But she is alive and well today. So what happened? She was on a vacation with her family in France and near Tours got into a car accident. Her husband was dead, her three children weretrapped and injured in the back of the car, and the rescuers at first thought she was dead, too. But the children were convinced she was breathing and they convinced the rescuers that there was hope. At the hospital, a very highly rated center for the tretment of brain injuries, neurologists told her relatives that she was badly injured and that the coma would probably last three or four months but that she could look forward to a return to consciousness. Back in England a few weeks later, the doctors were much more pessimistic. They said she was in a vegetative state and offered little to no hope of recovery. The family tells of being told that they should begin to think about whether to remove life support. Two months after the accident, discouraged by the lack of progress, the family moved her to a Catholic hospital, where they said she got much more stimulation, including physical therapy three times a day, being dressed every day ,and being taken to the television lounge. Her family noticed an immediate difference and three weeks later she was conscious.
End-of-Life Options: Tube Feeding It can mean, for example, that before a person can be considered to be in a persistentvegetative state (PVS), that determination must be certified by two http://www.dickinson.edu/endoflife/Glossary.html
Extractions: Ad Litem : See Guardian ad litem Amicus Curiae Brief : Amicus curiae is Latin for "friend of the court." Amicus curiae briefs are reports to the court supplied by parties with some special expertise, but with no direct interest in the case. ANH : See Artificially provided Nutrition and Hydration Artificially -provided Nutrition and Hydration (ANH) : Any of several methods for providing nutrition and hydration to patient who are unable (or unwilling) to take in food and fluids by mouth. See Different kinds of tube feeding explained Best Interests : This is an end-of-life decision making criteria that a number of state courts have invoked for incompetent patients, usually when there is not enough information to make a decision on the basis of " substituted judgment ." It typically means choosing that course of action that "would probably be conceived by a reasonable person in the patient's circumstances." (This is a definition advanced by the President's Commission .) The Wisconsin Supreme Court argued that, while any analysis begins with the presumption that continued life is in the best interests of the patient, that presumption can be overcome by considering a number of factors, including; "the degree of humiliation, dependence and loss of dignity probably resulting from the condition and treatment; life expectancy with and without treatment; the various treatment options; and the risks, side effects and benefits of each of those options." See
Brain Injury And Early Childhood Education Resources: IAHP The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential is a nonprofit educational organization that serves braininjured children and well children. The Institutes introduces parents to the field http://www.iahp.org/institutes_report/coma
Extractions: Email this page Coma is not a diagnosis but rather a description of a dramatic symptom of profound brain injury. Using symptoms in place of a proper diagnosis often leads to the attempt to treat those symptoms. This does not work. To be successful one must treat the brain, where the injury actually exists. A proper diagnosis describes where the injury exists in the brain, the degree of the injury to the brain, and the extent of the injury to the brain. The dictionary defines coma as "a state of unconsciousness from which the patient cannot be aroused." The Institutes defines coma as "a state of unconsciousness from which the patient has not yet been aroused ." Coma due to brain injury is not an isolated phenomenon, but is instead an integral part of the unbroken continuum that extends from death and profound coma at one end of the spectrum to very mild brain injury and normality at the other. Articles on this subject include: The Institutes Worldwide: