Word: houben
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...HOUBEN, a Belgian man who was mistakenly presumed to be in a coma for 23 years after becoming paralyzed in a car crash. A recent journal article revealed that doctors, using new scanning techniques, discovered in 2006 that Houben, who could not speak, had normal brain function. He now communicates using a special keyboard...
...Houben's case come to light? Over the past five years, Laureys and others have studied brain-injury patients classified as being in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). In such states, patients awake from a coma and return to a normal sleep cycle, but show no signs of awareness or consciousness. Laureys and others have found that around 40% of such patients are misdiagnosed. Most of these misdiagnosed patients fall under a classification called "minimally conscious," in which they show subtle but consistent signs of awareness. (The "minimally conscious" classification was only recognized in 2002 thanks to the work...
...Houben's method of communication caused controversy? "Facilitated communication," as it's called, is a hotly disputed method. Studies on its use in autistic patients have shown that caregivers - often in an earnest desire to help the patient - are sometimes themselves controlling the typing. Some of the news footage of Houben appears to show him and his therapist typing on his computer screen with his eyes closed. Earlier this week, Arthur Caplan, a bioethics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told The Associated Press that Houben's communication was "Ouija board stuff. It's been discredited time and time again...
...Laureys defends Houben's communication technique, saying he has tested the accuracy of his messages by asking him to name certain objects without the help of his therapist. "The videos are very unfortunate and a very bad representation of his condition," Laureys tells TIME. "He was ignored for many years and now he's going through that again by people who make judgments based on the videos...
...there legal ramifications for cases such as Houben's? The distinction between PVS and minimal consciousness has caused legal problems for years now. High-profile cases - most notably that of Floridian Terri Schiavo, whose husband ended her life in 2005 over the vehement protestations of Republican politicians - demonstrate how emotional and legally contentious care for brain-injury patients can be. Such legal fights are likely to become more common as classifications of brain-injury severity are revised. But some medical experts say there are a more immediate concerns than end-of-life questions: "The figures [of misdiagnoses] are frightening...