Holy Cow! Patients in PVS Awakened by Sleeping Pill

If actually true, this story, published by the usually reliable Guardian, is amazing: Three patients who were unconscious for years in diagnosed persistent vegetative states (PVS), awakened after being given a certain sleeping medication. They interacted with their environment. And then, after four hours, became unconscious again. The story says permanently unconscious, but I doubt that word applies any more.

This definitely needs to be researched and after proper vetting, put into appropriate clinical trials. It also illustrates that we really don’t know what is going on inside the minds of people diagnosed as permanently unconscious. Moreover, if this is real—and it sure appears that it is—it should give us great pause before pulling the tube feeding of people diagnosed as PVS. The doctors involved also claimed that the drug could have wider application, hoping that “the drug could have uses in all kinds of brain damage, including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s.”