Vegetative Patients May Be More Aware Than We Knew

In 2019, Jan Claassen, MD, FNCS—Professor of Neurology and Chief of Critical Care and Hospitalist Neurology at Columbia University—led a research team that evaluated more than 100 ICU patients for signs of consciousness. Their seminal study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, indicated that 15 percent of acutely brain-injured patients without any clinical signs of consciousness showed brain activation in response to instructions such as “keep opening and closing your right hand.” Those who demonstrated brain activation were approximately three times more likely to regain at least partial independence. Increasingly, Dr Claassen’s team and others are providing insights into prognostication and support of recovery of these brain-injured patients. Discovering consciousness, especially early, in the ICU provides families with more information and options to consider. [read more]

Source: The New York Times Magazine