Word: coma
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...rumors, fed by his wan and wasted appearance, had circulated for days. Rock Hudson, it was said, was suffering from liver cancer and slipping in and out of a coma at the American Hospital in the Paris suburb of Neuilly. Reality was more shocking than rumor. At the hospital last week, a spokeswoman for the actor bluntly announced, "Mr. Rock Hudson has acquired immune deficiency syndrome...
...reason that a growing number of doctors seem willing to lend a hand in bringing lives to a close--and not all of those physicians are in Oregon. Many doctors admit to being willing to administer so-called terminal sedation, raising drug levels high enough to induce a fatal coma. Others simply increase morphine doses until the patient stops breathing. In 1998 the New England Journal of Medicine published a physician survey showing that when patients asked for lethal prescriptions, 16% of doctors complied, albeit quietly. "Aid in dying happens in every state," says assemblywoman Patty Berg, co-sponsor...
...DOES TERRI SCHIAVO OPEN HER EYES, BLINK AND APPEAR TO SMILE IN THE VIDEO HER PARENTS MADE? The most difficult thing to understand about a vegetative state is that it allows one to be awake but not aware. (In a coma, you are unresponsive and your eyes are closed.) Because the sleep-wake cycle and certain eye movements are not controlled by the cortex or the thalamus, they can continue without conscious awareness. Even acts of crying and smiling may be reflexive events that do not occur in response to specific stimuli...
...taking to one's bed and refusing to eat while drinking little or nothing was until recently a common way to die.) Moistening the lips and mouth will keep the skin in this area from cracking. The lack of fluid leads to a buildup of ketones that induces a coma, along with kidney failure or cardiac arrest--a deceptively dramatic-sounding breakdown that nonetheless can release a patient from life quite gently. --By Christine Gorman...
...Toledo, Ohio, voted 5 to 3 to remove her feeding tube. She had been in a persistent vegetative state since May, when she suffered multiple strokes. Her mother Joyce Moran voted against removal. Years ago, Moran's brother-in-law had needed six months to emerge from a coma; what if Rudolph needed that time too? The family compromised, agreeing not to take immediate action. But by November, Moran had gone through an intense period of prayer, research and discussion with the doctors and her priest. On Nov. 8, doctors removed Rudolph's feeding tube but kept her on morphine...