Dear MIRIAM: OUR SON CAN'T STIR.Byline: Dr MIRIAM STOPPARD Dear Miriam WHAT is locked-in syndrome? My son has it after a terrible motorbike accident four months ago. He seems awake to us and I sense he knows we're there when we visit but he can't move a muscle. WHAT'S happened to your son is tragic but, if he can see and hear, doctors can make a firm diagnosis of locked-in syndrome (LIS LIS - Langage Implementation Systeme. A predecessor of Ada developed by Ichbiah in 1973. It was influenced by Pascal's data structures and Sue's control structures. A type declaration can have a low-level implementation specification. ) which is one of the lighter levels of unconsciousness. Deepest of all is brain death where there are no signs of awareness or arousal, and no breathing either. It really means the person's dead. Less deep is coma, a completely unresponsive state, eyes closed, with a total lack of arousal, wakefulness wakefulness believed to occur when the tonic flow of impulses from the reticular activating system exceeds the critical level for sustaining consciousness; reduction of reticular activating system activity is the basis of the pharmacological induction of sedation. and awareness. Vegetative state is wakeful unawareness. The patient has periods of sleep, wakefulness and eye opening. After a month the patient is said to be in a persistent vegetative state persistent vegetative state: see under coma, in medicine. . After three months to one year, it may be called a permanent vegetative state. It's important your son is given long-term care because the outlook improves if he survives a year. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion