ah1]Schiavo Feels No Pain
CLEVELAND-Patients in a persistent vegetative state like Terri Schiavo are a subgroup who suffer severe anoxic brain injury and progress to a state of wakefulness without awareness.
It is judged to be permanent after three months if induced nontraumatically. After 3 months, recovery is rare and life expectancy is approximately 2 to 5 years.
Patients in a persistent vegetative state do not feel pain, nor do they "suffer," says Michael De Georgia, MD, head of the neurology-neurosurgery intensive care unit at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation here.
Pain, as well as suffering, requires consciousness, which is lacking in a person in a persistent vegetative state, says Dr. De Georgia.
"Certainly these patients don't suffer," he adds. "Suffering is really that whole emotional aspect of pain: fear, anxiety, panic surrounding pain. You have to have consciousness to experience these emotions. So just as a person in a persistent vegetative state can't experience pain because of a lack of consciousness, they also don't suffer."
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If she feels no pain then there is no harm in trying to rehabilitate her. The husband wants her dead to inherit what's left of the 2.6 mil she received in the law suit.
Again, if she feels no pain, there is no rush to kill her to save her from her present condition. There is no harm to do what the parents want and the husband has forbidden for over 10 yrs, rehabilitate her!