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People In A Coma / Vegetative State

An odd story here:

Coma man Denby Collins' 'missing seven hours'

The parents of a Kent man are trying to piece together seven missing hours which led to their son ending up in a coma with little chance of recovery.
Denby Collins, 38, was arrested on suspicion of burglary at a house in Gillingham on 15 December, then taken to hospital in a serious condition.

"We just really need to understand what has gone on," said his father Peter.
Kent Police said it was investigating how Mr Collins came to be in the house.
His parents have instructed lawyers because they are unhappy with the information they have received from the force.
They fear police failed to investigate adequately what happened between 20:00 GMT on 14 December when they spoke to their son on the phone and the early hours of the next day, when he was arrested.

Lawyer Daniel Machover said he had established that Kent Police was investigating an assault on Mr Collins.
"Denby was handcuffed by police officers when they were called to private premises regarding an alleged burglary," said Mr Machover.
"We understand that on being handcuffed it was realised that (he) was unconscious and seriously unwell.
"A police medic at the scene used a defibrillator to revive Denby Collins, who otherwise would have died."

Mr Collins has been in a coma ever since.
"It is likely that he is going to be severely handicapped for the rest of his life because of his brain injuries," said his father.
"It is very difficult because we just can't get closure on this.
"It is such a shock when he was a young man in his prime."

Kent Police said in a statement: "A 38-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of burglary and taken to hospital for medical treatment.
"Inquiries are ongoing into the circumstances of how he came to be in the house.
"Detectives are particularly interested in speaking to people who saw Denby Collins between 16:00 GMT on 14 December and 03:15 GMT on 15 December."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-26139599

Or is this a case of Dumb Cops?
 
Vegetative patients show glimmers of consciousness
By Smitha Mundasad, Health reporter, BBC News

Scientists have uncovered hidden signatures in the brains of people in vegetative states that suggest they may have a glimmer of consciousness.
Doctors normally consider these patients - who have severe brain injuries - to be unaware of the world around them although they appear awake.
Researchers hope their work will help identify those who are actually conscious, but unable to communicate.
Their report appears in PLoS Computational Biology.

After catastrophic brain injuries, for example due to car crashes or major heart attacks, some people can appear to wake up yet do not respond to events around them.
Doctors describe these patients as being in a vegetative state.
Patients typically open their eyes and look around, but cannot react to commands or make any purposeful movements. Some people remain in this state for many years.

But a handful of recent studies have questioned this diagnosis - suggesting some patients may actually be aware of what is going on around them, but unable to communicate.
A team of scientists at Cambridge University studied 13 patients in vegetative states, mapping the electrical activity of their nerves using a mesh of electrodes applied to their scalps.
The electrical patterns and connections they recorded were then compared with healthy volunteers.
The study reveals four of the 13 patients had an electrical signature that was very similar to those seen in the volunteers.

Dr Srivas Chennu, who led the research, said: "This suggests some of the brain networks that support consciousness in healthy adults may be well-preserved in a number of people in persistent vegetative state too."

In the second stage of their experiment, scientists arranged for these four patients to have their brains scanned using an MRI machine while being asked to imagine playing tennis.
Previous research shows the area of the brain linked to planning movement lights up when some people in vegetative states performed the task.

And the Cambridge team found three of their patients had similar results - suggesting they were conscious enough to understand a command and to decide to follow it through.
Dr Chennu added: "This type of information might be helpful for families and the healthcare team looking after the patient.
"We have heard anecdotally that carers change their level of interaction with patients once they know there may be some hope of awareness."

Dr Tristan Bekinschtein, who was also also involved in the research, said there were some limitations to the test, but "with other tests it could help in the clinical assessment of patients".
He added: "If a patient's awareness networks are intact, then we know that they are likely to be aware of what is going on around them."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29643038
 
'Brain dead' man wakes up after father threatened to shoot medics trying to turn off life support
The father held off hospital staff and police for three hours with his gun
Matt Payton

A "brain dead" man is now in recovery after his father threatened to shoot medics trying to turn off his life support machine.
George Pickering II refused to accept his 27-year-old son, George III, would not recover from a stroke and held off police and hospital staff with a gun for three hours.
Mr Pickering, aged 59, was able to get his son to squeeze his hand on command numerous times during the stand-off.

Doctors at Tomball Regional Medical Centre in Houston, Texas, had ordered a 'terminal wean', a process whereby life support is slowly removed from a comatose patient.
This decision had been made with the agreement of Mr Pickering's ex-wife and other son and an organ donor organisation had also been notified by the hospital.

Speaking of the drama last January, Mr Pickering Sr told KPRC: “They were moving too fast. The hospital, the nurses, the doctors.
"I knew if I had three or four hours that night, I would know whether George was brain dead.
“During that three hours, George squeezed my hand three or four times on command.”

While he has admitted to being drunk and aggressive that night - he said he had experienced a similar situation when George III, who has a history of seizures, recovered.
His son said: “There was a law broken, but it was broken for all the right reasons. I’m here now because of it. It was love, it was love.
"It's the duty of a parent to protect your children and that's all he did.
"The important thing is I'm alive and well, my father is home and we're together again."

Mr Pickering was charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and jailed.
He was released earlier this month after the charges against him were dropped.

Tomball Regional Medical Centre said in a statement: “When a patient’s condition makes them unable to participate in their own care, the appropriate substitute decision-maker has the right to decide whether or not they will move forward with a recommended care plan.
“However, that decision must be expressed in a way that does not endanger other patients or caregivers. Due to strict privacy laws, we are unable to comment about individual patients.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/U...trying-to-turn-off-life-support-a6785196.html
 
How many minimally conscious patients are there?
By Sanchia Berg & George Greenwood Radio 4 Today programme
21 December 2016

Advances in medicine have meant that many more people survive traumatic incidents than in the past.
Many people will have "prolonged disorders of consciousness" - either in a coma or vegetative state, where they show no awareness of their environment, or a minimally conscious state, like Paul Briggs, where they show very limited awareness.

However, the NHS does not publish data on these patients, so this autumn the BBC requested the information from all individual CCGs and NHS bodies across the UK.
The responses showed that more than 100 people with prolonged disorders of consciousness are currently being cared for by the NHS.

Many of the 105 patients declared by health authorities have been in this state for more than six months.
The data comes from a BBC Freedom of Information enquiry, but gives a very incomplete picture, as only a quarter of all bodies responded.

In the most extreme of these cases uncovered by BBC Radio 4's Today programme, a patient cared for by the Western Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland had been in a minimally conscious state for 20 years.

Treating patients with long-term consciousness disorders takes up a considerable portion of some of the continuing care budgets of Clinical Commissioning Groups, the NHS bodies responsible for arranging their care in England.

Ever since the House of Lords ruled in 1993 that doctors could end treatment for Tony Bland, the fan injured at Hillsborough, withdrawal of food and water has been approved case by case by the Court of Protection.

However, lawyers say there have been relatively few cases over the past twenty years, almost always brought by the NHS Trust or Clinical Commissioning Group.

The case of Paul Briggs was exceptional: the family brought the case, and the judge agreed Mr Briggs could be named.

The Court of Protection deals with cases where a person, usually referred to as "P", lacks capacity to manage their own affairs.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38383338
 
Naughty_Felid said:
One for the Norfolk members.

I fell asleep and woke up 19 years later holding a winkle and covered in crabs.

The doctor said I'd been Cromertose!
Click to expand...
I call it to "Acromertise" and have tried to advise people settling here ... adjust to the social environment that is current 2016 Cromer by watching The Truman Show, Pleaseantville, Back To The Future and a slight splattering of League Of Gentleman ... because you will be going back to the 50's one way or another, every day is pretty much the same except for when something insane happens. I can give examples.
 
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/17/us/west-virginia-wanda-palmer-coma/index.html

A West Virginia woman woke up from two-year coma -- and identified her brother as the attacker who nearly killed her, police say​

By Artemis Moshtaghian and Benjamin Schiller, CNN
(CNN)A West Virginia woman has awoken from a two-year coma and identified her brother as her attacker, according to police. Wanda Palmer, 51, accused her brother of attacking her at her residence near Cottageville, West Virginia, in June 2020. Police said that Palmer was "attacked, hacked, and left for dead," according to a statement posted on Jackson County Sheriff's Department's Facebook.

Police say they found Palmer in an "upright position" on her couch with severe injuries caused by what appeared to be a hatchet or axe. Jackson County Sheriff Ross Mellinger told CNN that when police arrived, they thought she was dead but realized soon after she was still alive and breathing shallowly.

Police never recovered the weapon, Mellinger said. One witness reported seeing Palmer's brother, Daniel, on her porch around midnight the night before she was discovered, Mellinger said. There were no phone records, surveillance footage, or eyewitnesses outside of Palmer's home, the sheriff said.

Police investigated several people but could never file charges. A couple of weeks ago, Mellinger said, his ofice got a call from Palmer's care facility saying she was able to speak to authorities.

Palmer was able to answer only yes-or-no questions but provided enough testimony for police to arrest Daniel, Mellinger told CNN. Daniel Palmer III, 55, was arrested and charged with attempted murder and malicious wounding on Friday, according to arrest records obtained by CNN.
He was arraigned and assessed with a bond of $500,000, according to the Jackson County sheriff, who said it is unclear how he pleaded. CNN was unable to identify an attorney for him but has reached out to the Jackson County Public Defender's office. Wanda Palmer is now coherent but unable to hold full-length conversations, the Jackson County sheriff told CNN.
CNN's Zoe Sottile contributed to this report.
Click to expand...
 
A woman who was "attacked and left for dead" in a two-year coma has woken up and named her brother as her attacker.

Wanda Palmer was living in a care home in New Martinsville, West Virginia, after she was found unconscious with serious head injuries at her home.

She had been so savagely beaten authorities thought she was dead when they discovered her, according to the paper.

Police worked to find evidence of her attacker, but every lead dried up, the paper reported.

But in June, the care home called police to let them know Ms Palmer had come out of her coma and was able to speak single words and seemed to respond when questioned.

In an interview with police last week, she identified the person who attacked her as her brother, Daniel Palmer, 55.

wanda2.jpg


Palmer has since been charged with attempted murder and malicious wounding, the Sheriff's office said on Facebook.

https://www.itv.com/news/2022-07-18...oma-and-tells-police-her-brother-attacked-her

maximus otter
 
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