More Alarming News: New Study Finds Increasing Evidence of “PVS” Misdiagnosis

July 30, 2009 (The Economist)

A newly published study suggests that a lot of people who have been diagnosed as being in a vegetative state are not in one

Lables matter. Indeed, they can be the difference between life and death. Someone lying in a hospital bed labelled “minimally conscious state” will be kept on life support indefinitely. If the label says “vegetative state”, however, that life support could be turned off any time. A layman might not be able to tell the difference. But a doctor can.

Or can he? A worrying study just published in BioMed Central Neurology by Caroline Schnakers, Steven Laureys and their colleagues at the University of Liège’s coma science group suggests that perhaps he cannot—or, perhaps worse, that he prefers to use his intuition rather than the latest diagnostic techniques to tell the difference. As a result, many people may be at risk of early termination even when they show flickering signs that their consciousness has not departed entirely.

(continue reading...)

(watch Terri's response to physician asking "open your eyes"...)