"My Second Birth"-Man Misdiagnosed as Being in Coma for 23 Years!

In a post on a similar story to the following, I said: "Doctors are wrong all the time, you never know what will happen in the future - whether it's a miracle or a medical advance - that could bring your loved one back to you..." Well, here's a coma case where the doctors were wrong and it was only with medical advances that a man was "reborn:"

Patient trapped in a 23-year 'coma' was conscious all along

Doctors used a range of coma tests, recognised worldwide, before reluctantly concluding that his consciousness was 'extinct'.

But three years ago, new hi-tech scans showed his brain was still functioning almost completely normally. ...

Mr Houben describes the moment as 'my second birth'.

Therapy has since allowed him to tap out messages on a computer screen. ...

Mr Houben, a former martial arts enthusiast, was paralysed in 1983.

Doctors in Zolder, Belgium, used the internationally accepted Glasgow Coma Scale to assess his eye, verbal and motor responses.

But each time he was graded incorrectly.

Only a re-evaluation of his case at the University of Liege discovered that he had lost control of his body but was still fully aware of what was happening. ...

Dr Laureys's new study claims that patients classed as in a vegetative state are often misdiagnosed.

'Anyone who bears the stamp of "unconscious" just one time hardly ever gets rid of it again,' he said. ...

Supporters of euthanasia and assisted suicide argue that people who have lain in persistent vegetative states for years should be given the opportunity to have crucial medical support withdrawn because of the 'indignity' of their condition.

But there have been several cases in which people judged to be in vegetative states or deep comas have recovered. ...

Terri Schiavo was judged to be in a "persistent vegetative state" before she was starved to death. Who knows if the diagnosis was correct, if she could have recovered through therapy, or if new advances in science could have helped her? Cases like this reinforce my opposition to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide - always err on the side of life and pray for a miracle, because they do happen.

Related posts:

Back from the dead

The Slippery Slope in Action

The Slippery Slope in Action

The slippery slope is not just theoretical.

As the men quoted in these articles say, as long as euthanasia and the killing of disabled babies is encouraged in policy and law, the devaluation of human life will continue and allow for problems like this to occur. Not only is this an indictment on the culture of death, but also on socialized medicine.


UK Medical Staff Declare Disabled Man Not Worth Saving From Heart Attack

In an incident that pro-life advocates say is the slippery slope that results from legalizing assisted suicide or euthanasia, two medical staffers in England have been arrested for reportedly deciding that the life of a disabled man was not worth saving after he had a heart attack. ...

When the unnamed medics arrived at Baker's home, they found him collapsed on the floor and the phone line was still open and recording their conversations. Baker died after the incident.

A police source told the London Times that the medics were heard discussing how they didn't want to revive Baker saying “words to the effect that he was not worth saving."

They were also heard discussing what to say to authorities and decided to give a story saying Baker had died prior to their arrival at his home.

..."The next time you are tempted to scoff at folk with disabilities who worry that they many people think their lives are not worth living, remember this story," he said. ...

"Friends and colleagues who have disabilities report similar stories of disdain occurring here when seeking medical care, for example, of people on ventilators being pressured to sign DNRs by hospital personnel even though they were not undergoing usually life-threatening procedures," he explains.

"Human exceptionalism demands that each of us be deemed to be of equal objective moral worth. It is an ideal we have never achieved, admittedly. But unless bigotry against people with disabilities is especially shocking when it impacts care in the medical context," Smith added.

British Hospital Allows Down Syndrome Patient to Starve to Death Over 26 Days

In a scandal that is causing a massive outcry, a British hospital has allowed a Down syndrome patient to starve to death over a 26 day period. Martin Ryan, who could not swallow after a stroke, was allowed to lie in a bed and starve to death without receiving any medical care.

...The query found that doctors thought staff nurses were feeding him with a feeding tube in his nose, but by the time anyone realized that had not happened for weeks, Ryan was took weak for a surgery to insert a gastronomy tube in his stomach.

...A report by the Mencap charity following the incident found the British governmental health service has also failed other people with mental difficulties, citing a young woman denied cancer treatment and a young man who died during treatment for a broken leg.

Anthony Ozimic, the political secretary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, a British pro-life group, told LifeNews.com the British government must be held accountable for what is becoming routine discrimination against the mentally disabled.

"Mencap has identified institutional discrimination within Britain's healthcare services against people with learning disabilities," he said. "Yet lethal institutional discrimination against the disabled and vulnerable is enshrined in law and policy, particularly in the pro-euthanasia Mental Capacity Act which Mencap supported."

"Disabled adults will continue to die because of discriminatory attitudes whilst the Mental Capacity Act and the killing of disabled unborn children, which manifest those attitudes, remain law," Ozimic added.

Related post:

What the culture of abortion on demand has wrought

Back from the dead

This is an inspiring story about a man who came out of a coma after doctors advised his family to pull the plug. It pretty much epitomizes why I am pro-life on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide and why I supported the fight of Terri Schiavo's family to keep her alive.

Doctors are wrong all the time, you never know what will happen in the future - whether it's a miracle or a medical advance - that could bring your loved one back to you. Why NOT err on the side of life? What do you have to lose? You'll never regret giving them a longer chance to recover, but you may regret pulling the plug too early.

'I'm glad I can do anything'

Monk suffered a traumatic closed brain injury when he was T-boned eight years ago in a midsize car by a large pickup truck.

...Monk went into a coma upon impact and had no measurable brain function for 18 days. He spent three months in a coma.

"Some of the doctors told Mom and Dad to just pull the plug," Monk said.

"We heard that for months," Monk's mom, Janice Monk, added. "From every place we went, they told us he'd never be anything but a vegetable."

Hearing this makes Monk mad.

"Doctors are there to heal," he said, "not to give up."

But Monk never gave up on himself. He did wake up, and he's no vegetable.

...But Monk cherishes these days more than most because he knows how fragile life can be. He also knows that he has a purpose for being here -- because God told him so.

..."He said, 'My son, I'm not ready for you yet. You still have many things to do for us down there, and when it's your day, I'll bring you back home, but not yet,"' Monk said.

This is Monk's daily reminder that no matter his circumstances, he has to help people.

And Monk takes God's words to heart.