With the help of a state-of-the-art brain scanner, British neurosurgeons have established that vegetative patients are able to think and even "answer" questions.
In 2000, Canadian resident Scott Routley had a serious accident and was taken to hospital in serious condition. Doctors told the victim's relatives that Scott fell into a coma. The patient could open his eyes, wiggle his fingers and observed the usual day and night regime, so the family believed that Scott hears and understands them. However, doctors kept saying the opposite. All tests indicated that the man was in a vegetative state and was unable to respond to the outside world.
This case was of great interest to the British neurosurgeon Adrian Owen, who decided to conduct a detailed study. Together with a team of scientists from the University of Cambridge, the professor developed a special technique for "reading" the thoughts of people in a coma.
Scientists scanned Scott's brain and asked him a series of questions, which were supposed to answer "yes" or "no". At the same time, the MRI machine recorded even the smallest activity in the man's brain. However, most of all scientists were interested in the question of whether Scott feels pain. The patient's answer was unequivocal - no.
“We believe that Scott knows who he is and where he is,” concludes Professor Owen.
According to the neurosurgeon, Scott showed that his consciousness has not died and that he is still capable of making decisions.
“We have been striving for many years to develop a method for 'talking' to patients in coma. Now this goal has been achieved,”the scientist noted. “I hope in the future we will be able to improve the technique and somehow improve the living conditions of such patients.”
Brian Young, who has been Scott Routley's neurosurgeon for all these years, admitted that the study's results literally turned theories around for assessing patients' condition using the typical procedures that are usually performed in such cases.
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Professor Owen conducted similar experiments on other patients and in almost all cases received similar positive results.
