Raised From the Bed

JackLewis.net has posted an impressive list of patients declared PVS who at some point after diagnosis were revived.

Here is a brief synopsis of a man who revived after eight years in a coma:

Conley Holbrook A 26-year-old man, comatose since he was beaten eight years ago (11/27/82), regained consciousness and gave authorities the names of his alleged attackers. The recovery occurred while Conley was being treated for pneumonia at Lexington Memorial Hospital in High Point, North Carolina. "I was astonished," his mother said. "I never gave up on him. This is just a miracle. It's good to have him home talking." ("Beaten man beats coma, fingers pair of suspects", Press-Telegram (AP Report), 3/6/91.)

After ten years:

Earl Lanning

In 1978, a then 52-year-old Michigan man suffered a brain hemorrhage and remained in a semi-comatose state for 10 years. In March 1988, he suddenly became "very lucid", began to speak and remembered much of what happened before he was stricken. Doctors said that steroids changed Earl's condition: "They have been able to reduce the swelling of his brain But his primary nurse at the Veteran's Care Facility in Grand Rapids credits a good part of his recovery to a nurse's aid who "talked to him constantly while caring for him." ("Earl Lanning revives from ten-year coma", Penasee Globe, 3/23/88, Vol. 103, No. 27.)

Another eight-year PVS case:

Unnamed Patient

A 45-year-old Wisconsin man who had spent 8 years in a vegetative state awakened after being injected with Valium during a routine dental procedure March 12, 1990. The man has been awakened a number of times since then with injections of Valium. A former airline pilot, the man was injured in a car accident. When medicated, he can remain fully conscious for up to 12 hours at a time and is able to walk and perform complicated math calculations. ("Doctors puzzled by man's recovery from vegetative state", The (Fargo-Moorhead) Forum, 3/29/90, p. A17.]

Interestingly, the majority of these patients awoke after a two-month time frame, which I presume is a lot more hopeful than a decade or more. But, interesting information all the same.