Bad Medicine ‘Miracle Man’ wakes up after family removes him from life support
By Perrie Halpern
Although the news is presenting this as a feel good story about a guy who defied death, it is actually a cautionary tale. The hospital should have been able to tell if he had a stroke or if he had encephalitis, yet, they didn't and worse, they were way too eager to get him off of life support, which the family went along with, since most people are intimidated by doctors or don't know what to ask. It was just this guys lucky day, that he didn't end up as body parts.
People need to educate themselves about the difference between brain death, persistent vegetative state, coma and locked in syndrome. Brain death, stroke and show up on regular MRI. All 4 conditions will show on an FMRI. FMRI's (functional MRI's) show brain activity. An MRI will show the damage done to a brain.
Brain death is exactly that. No brain activity, and usually extensive brain damage. On an MRI it shows as the black area in this scan:
In a FMRI it looks like this:
The color represents brain activity. Notice there is none in the brain dead person. This brings us to "vegetative state". No one is really sure what causes that state other than injury and that it is a dysfunction of consciousness. These individuals seem to have no awareness but respond to stimuli. The brain shows signs of activity. Many people emerge spontaneously from a vegetative state within a few weeks. The chances of recovery depend on the extent of injury to the brain and the patient's age – younger patients having a better chance of recovery than older patients.
In the case of a stroke, the brain would show the area of damage. Below the white area shows the area of the brain damaged from a stroke.
The bright white area being pointed to is the brain damage from a stroke.
And here is an MRI of a person with encephalitis, which the man in the story had:
Please note in the first MRI there is a lot of black around the brain. That is built up fluid from the viral infection. In the second MRI of the same brain, you can see far less black, since the water has receded around the brain. Take note that the MRI of the stroke victim looks nothing like the MRI of the person with encephalitis. Had the family in the story understood what to ask and what to look for, their decision would have probably been vastly different.
Finally, there is "locked in syndrome" a medical condition, usually resulting from a stroke that damages part of the brainstem, in which the body and most of the facial muscles are paralyzed but consciousness remains and the ability to perform certain eye movements is preserved. These individuals are totally aware and can communicate by blinking as in the movie "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly", which is the autobiography of a man with locked in syndrome. This condition is accidentally confused often with persistent vegetative state.
I hope that you will find this man's story interesting, and the data presented here informative, in case you ever have to face these kinds of awful decisions. Always be an informed consumer, even in medicine.
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I am sorry that I had to bang this out quickly last night, but my internet went out for a while and I did this rather late. I will be fielding questions, so please feel free to ask.
Thanks for the information Perrie .. I have seen several reports on the 'miracle man', but nothing in depth - it sounded like the docs just said .. 'Ooops we made a boo boo .. but all is good, nothing to see here ..
Thanks for providing details
Exactly! I even more troublesome is that the news reported it that way. The hospital almost committed murder. This guy was really lucky.
Exactly! Leave a directive for trusted family members. Of course if you are dead, help someone, but don't let a hospital make that decision.
IMO, hospitals are there to make a profit, first and formost. Secondly doctors make mistakes. Third you better be or your family better be your advocate. YOU are responsible for demanding and understanding what the doctors and hospitals are doing, why and when. Do not think for one second that they are infallible.
You are 100% right, Kavika. I am providing this information as a starting point since most people don't know what they are looking at. But the docs are obligated to explain things to you.. and someone in a coma is not brain dead. I am not sure why they were so eager to pull the plug, other than they had people lined up for the organs.
A lot of people don't pay attention and just think that the staff knows best.
My late Aunt had myasthenia gravis. It had a direct impact on her muscle control and she was on steroids for years.
A hospital once tried to give her muscle relaxers when that was the last thing she needed.
OMG.. what a scary story. Did she go into respiratory arrest?
Let's just say that the last time she was in hospital, her daughter will swear that it is what helped her demise.
Her son has Crohn's disease. Not all doctors know that much about it. Some doctors know more about certain things than others.
Years ago my mother had surgery. After surgery she just kept getting sick. Way worse off than she was. Almost died. Come to find out, after getting another doctor and another surgery, the first doctor had sewn part of her intestines in with the sutures.
I have a lot of respect for some doctors yet people need to make their voices heard and let physicians know what they know.
I have been in hospital with enough people that I know one has to make things known and heard.
Not putting all blame on the care giver. Just saying that even though it may be a hard circumstance, do not be afraid to speak or question.
yesterdays vegetative rape comes to mind,
and
also, the black brain syndrome of some posters is illustrated
Iggy,
I am glad you see the theme here a bit. I think that it is very important that people understand what rights they have and understand terms that are thrown around while they are in the hospital. Most people are intimidated by medical staff.
The irony is that I come from a family full of doctors, including my daughter who will be entering medical school. But what I found is that my background in biology used to occasionally lock horns with doctors who didn't like my questions. They are not gods. They make mistakes and people should be able to communicate with them.
Here is something to think about.
I am all for organ donation. But when you put it on your license, the hospital can override the families wishes. Don't put it on your license, but leave a directive for your family, if you want to be an organ donor. That way, a doc isn't going to pull the plug, before you have decided that the person is really not there anymore.
Dear Friend Perrie: Great advice!
Thanks for sharing in 5.
Enoch.
P.S. I plan on donating my body to Science Fiction.
Me too! I hope we don't end up with Dr. Frankenstein.
BOL!
Good one!
Thanks.
E.
"Brain death "has a very, very specific [set of] criteria that have to be met," Josephson said. There is no such thing as being nearly brain-dead, he said: You either are or you aren't."This patient had a neurologic injury and was not doing well, and then [he] recovered from it," Josephson said. "I would be very loath to even introduce the term 'brain death.'"
Great article Katrix!
The most disturbing part of this story is that they said he had a stroke. That would be very obvious from a simple MRI, when in fact, he had brain swelling, which is totally different. The brain goes into a coma as a way of healing itself and that is what happened here. It also means that that the hospital was never treating the man's swelling. Also, I have never heard of taking a coma victim off of life support that quickly. If you ask me, this is a big case of malpractice, if ever I saw one. I am just glad for the man that he was far enough along in the healing that he could recover after life support was removed.
Makes me think of the bells they use to put in coffins. Ring the bell if one wakes up.
Good reason for that.
Why waking up in a morgue isn’t quite as unusual as you’d think
It makes me think that the body can shut down to try to heal itself.