Originally Posted by lurkette

Actually, the article said he was almost in a persistent vegetative state.

I hesitate to even bring this issue up again but the deal with Terri Schiavo was that there was essentially NO BRAIN LEFT for the drugs to work on. The part of the brain that handles higher functions like speech and cognition was just GONE, and even some of her brainstem functions (like swallowing) were gone. Essentially replaced by CS fluid. Lack of oxygen doesn't always have the same effect on people's brains, and clearly this guy had enough brain to sit up on his own in a wheelchair and, eventually, speak. Terri Schiavo had little non-reflexive motor capacity, and the parts of the brain that control speech were, as I've said, gone. Not just "nonfunctional" - GONE. Liquefied. This sounds like a COMPLETELY different situation, and just because the two cases have words in common like "coma" and "almost in a persistent vegetative state," don't go thinking that gosh, they pulled the plug too soon on Terri Schiavo.