Patients in the vegetative state are said to be unaware and to lack the cortical capacity to feel pain (Multi-Society Task Force on PVS, 1994).
Because people in the vegetative state will respond to noise - by startle or jump, will respond to pain – by moving away, often will have some spontaneous movement, their eyes will move all over the place, they might yawn, sometimes they might stretch or they might move their arms.
Summary: Patients in a vegetative state do not respond to what is happening around them and exhibit no signs of conscious awareness. Now research has shown that the brains of patients in a vegetative state emotionally react to photographs of people they know personally as though they recognize them.
Other studies have shown that up to 20 percent of patients in various vegetative states can hear and respond on at least some level. But at least some of the responses seen could be dismissed as simple reflexes, or at best akin to someone in a dream state responding to stimuli.
Patients in vegetative state do not have emotions, because they do not have consciousness.
People in a vegetative state cannot do things that require thought or conscious intention. They cannot speak, follow commands, move their limbs purposefully, or move to avoid a painful stimulus. (EEG) have detected evidence of some brain activity suggesting possible awareness.
That means the patient wouldn`t be able to cough, swallow or breathe on their own, whereas a patient in a vegetative state might be able to do one or all of those three things, DiGeorgia said. “You unplug the plug when the person has no brain waves and no hope of quality of life,” Braverman said.
A person in a vegetative state may open their eyes, wake up and fall asleep at regular intervals and have basic reflexes, such as blinking when they're startled by a loud noise, or withdrawing their hand when it's squeezed hard.
While each condition has its own symptoms, those in a vegetative state have no awareness of the world around them while patients with locked in syndrome are aware of their surroundings, cognitively intact, and can interact with others using eye motions.
The unconscious person may still feel pain as they did when they were awake. For this reason pain medication will continue to be administered but perhaps by another method such as the subcutaneous route (through a butterfly clip in the stomach, arm or leg).
But in humans, the architecture of the brain is very different. "I can guarantee you that no human, no matter how you did it, would be surviving for 18 months after the brain was cut off," Zemmar said.
Their eyes may also randomly wander or track moving objects, and their breathing and heart rate are able to keep their body going without the assistance of machines. Other actions such as swallowing, smiling, and tearing up as well as groaning, grunting, or screaming are all common in vegetative states too.
Some people recover from a vegetative state, but it is usually not a complete recovery. The brain damage will likely result in permanent disabilities. Recovery is most likely if the cause of the vegetative state is an injury or a reversible condition such as low blood sugar or a drug overdose.
Life expectancy in the persistent VS. Early research8 suggested that life expectancy in this condition was 2-5 years, with survival for 10 years being uncommon. More recent work suggests a somewhat better prognosis for survival.
Thus some patients can regain awareness after more than four months in a vegetative state, and, although few reach full independence, most can achieve an improved quality of life within the limitations of their disabilities. The recovery period is prolonged and may continue for several years.
The vegetative stage can last for weeks or even months. It ends when plants begin the transition to budding, whether because they have reached their mature size or because the conditions have triggered the start of reproduction.
Tips to Make Your Plants Grow Faster…
Give Your Plants More Light – If you're growing indoors, then as long as you give your plants more than 14 hours of light each day, they'll stay in the vegetative stage. But you can actually give them 24 hours of light each day and it's like “forcing” more growth.
Abstract. Some vegetative state patients show fMRI responses similar to those of healthy controls when instructed to perform mental imagery tasks. Many authors have argued that this provides evidence that such patients are in fact conscious, as response to commands requires intentional agency.
They sleep, sometimes snore, and regularly open their eyes, but patients in a vegetative state appear to be completely unaware of the world around them.
Unlike a person in a coma, a person in a PVS has sleep and wake cycles, or periods when they are awake and asleep. The person can sometimes sneeze, cough, and even smile or cry.
In some cases, it may be that the family believe that the patient would have wanted ongoing treatment regardless of their level of consciousness or prognosis. Alternatively, some family members may be hoping for a “miracle” recovery or are simply not yet ready to let go of a loved one.
For children in a persistent vegetative state, the estimated annual cost of care at home is $129,000 (±$51,000) for the first year and $97,000 for subsequent years126.
Doctors usually advise stopping life support when there is no hope left for recovery. The organs are no longer able to function on their own. Keeping the treatment going at that point may draw out the process of dying and may also be costly.