Vegetative Patients Can Communicate

Scott Routley suffered a severe
brain injury in a car accident 12 years ago.  He had been diagnosed with a persistent vegetative state.  But Professor Adrian Owen
at the Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario (formerly at Cambridge) recently
concluded that Scott was clearly
not vegetative.  (BBC News)  

Dr. Owen
asked Scott questions while having his brain activity scanned in an fMRI
machine.  "Scott has been able to show he has a conscious, thinking
mind. We have scanned him several times and his pattern of brain activity shows
he is clearly choosing to answer our questions. We believe he knows who and
where he is."  It's the first time that an uncommunicative, severely
brain-injured patient has been able to give answers clinically relevant to
their care.

Tonight, on BBC One, Panorama will broadcast a one-hour special
follows a group of severely brain injured patients and reveals the
revolutionary efforts made to help them communicate with their families and the
outside world.