Shakeman wrote:timbo wrote:Shakeman wrote:He's not in a vegetative state he has locked in syndrome which is different. He's still in there.
There is ongoin research of brain activity in V.S. and there are positive results published, e.g.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/270404.php
I think there are vegetative states that the patient can "recognise" family yet not have the capacity to comprehend anything else. Is the person there? A plant will follow sun light but no one is at home.
What brain activity constitutes a person in these borderline cases? Difficult one.
have you looked the video posted above? if it weren't for the 'breakthrough' communication, people would've assumed he's blank and empty and not thinking at all. The video shows that, in this case atleast, that's incorrect, the person is able to think and communicate. you could thus say he is actually 'awake', but the body is not responding to his mind the way it should.
for all that matters, schumacher may be thinking, hell, in a certain manner, his mind may be active, but his body is not working with it the way it should.
So comparing the speculation about schumacher responding to his wife as compared to a flower to the sun is a tad disrespectfull and in no comparison at all, honestly. The fact schumacher responds to his wife shows that he actually HAS a certain level of 'awareness'.
A plant has no awareness. you could call it a 'mechanical' response. Chemical response, when rays of the sun or heat from the sun hit the flower and it reacts to it.
Schumacher following his wife is not a 'mechanical' response. it's a mental response, and that's what's most important.
but anyway........let's wait and see if there is any truth to all this.