Awakened from ... Something ... She Speaks
Chicago Tribune and everyone else is reporting this morning on a "miraculous case of waking up from a long-term coma," which apparently included an eyes open state for some significant amount of time. This is the AP account:HUTCHINSON, Kan. -- Sarah Scantlin was an 18-year-old college freshman on Sept. 22, 1984, when she was hit by a drunken driver as she walked to her car after celebrating with friends at a teen club.It is unclear what sort of state Scantlin was in. Was it a coma? Was she merely unable to talk? Was she "locked in"? There are no clinical comments beyond a speech therapist in the story so far, but you can bet this story will lead everyone's news for the next several days.Since then she has been mostly oblivious to the world around her, able only to blink her eyes to respond to questions no one knew for sure she understood.
But a week ago, her parents got a call from Jennifer Trammell, a licensed nurse at the Golden Plains Healthcare Center. Trammell asked Betsy Scantlin if she was sitting down, told her someone wanted to talk to her and switched the phone to speaker mode:
"Hi, Mom."
"Sarah, is that you?" her mother asked.
"Yes," came the throaty reply.
"How are you doing?"
"Fine."
contribute a comment
Comments have been closed for this post.
comments
Please define "locked in" for the non-medical types in the audience (I'm sure a Google search would inundate me with incorrect answers).
- by Linkmeister on Feb 13, 2005 at 4:19 PM | link
"Locked-in Syndrome" is the result of occlusion of the perforating arteries of the paramedian basilar artery leading to dysfunction of the corticospinal tract, corticobulbar tract and the exiting 6th cranial nerve fibers.
All of this pathology leads to a NORMAL level of consciousness but the patient is only able to communicate via vertical eye movements and blinking The patient is otherwise paralyzed and requires mechanical ventilation to breathe.
If the patient can breathe on her own and move her extremities she does NOT have the "Locked-in Syndrome". ..Maurice.
- by Maurice Bernstein, M.D. on Feb 13, 2005 at 7:37 PM | link
Ah. Thank you, Doctor.
- by Linkmeister on Feb 14, 2005 at 3:08 AM | link