An incredible news story came out of Belgium this week, where a man named Rom Houben who had been diagnosed as comatose for 23 years appears to have been conscious the whole time.
According to the news account, a doctor used state-of-the-art imaging equipment to look at the Houben’s brain and determined that he was not in a vegetative state as previously diagnosed. With the help of a speech therapist, Houben typed out a message today saying that he felt reborn.
The doctor uses brain imaging, such as PET and MRI scans, to review about 50 cases a year. According to his findings, about 40 percent of patients diagnosed as being in a vegetative state in fact have some degree of consciousness.
As a neuroscientist, this is stunning news. Being awake but unable to move or communicate is a condition known as “locked-in syndrome.” It is a terrifying existence in which a person is trapped inside their own body, almost like being buried alive.
This story makes me wonder how many other people in comas are actually more aware than people know. If we never look at the brain, how do we know?
Why is the health industry lagging in realizing how important it is to use brain imaging to diagnose and treat patients?
I have been advocating brain imaging in the mental health arena for nearly two decades. We have the technology. We know it works. We have shown that it can be helpful in diagnosing patients and targeting the best treatments for them.
Now is the time to make looking at the brain a routine practice in the physical health and mental health fields.
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While I can’t comment on the validitiy of the brain scans I want to point out that the so-called “speech therapist” is using Facilitated Communication a thouroughly questionable and discredited technique. Basically the therapist rests the patient’s hand on his/her own hand and then types what the therapist thinks the patient is pointing to thru “subtle” motions. This was big in the autism movement 10-20 years ago but the elaborate stories and histories were found to be almost completely made up by the “facilitator.”
There’s a recent news story where this technique was used to almost totally destroy a family when a “facilitator” working for a school reported the autistic patient was being horribly abused. Completely made up and disporeved and now the facilitator, school and prosecutor are all being sued for crediting such a discredited technique as reliable.