Your loved one is unresponsive. He or she is laying in a hospital bed at Norton Hospital or another Kentucky medical facility and appears to be awake, but yet is unconscious. The doctors are telling you that the condition is unlikely to be reversed, but how can you be sure? You, understandably, don’t want to take your loved one off of life support if there is a change that he or she will come back to you.
These Are Very Difficult Situations That Science May Help Resolve
New research indicates that there may be a more reliable way to tell if a person is in a vegetative state, or not. This information could help prevent families from taking loved ones off of life support when a person is not in a true vegetative state.
More specifically, the research recently published in The Lancet indicates that using a PET scan on the brain, rather than an MRI, was more accurate in measuring consciousness. Some of the study participants who were evaluated with a PET scan showed brain activity that was not detected in standard hospital tests and some recovered a reasonable degree of consciousness over time.
A Proper Diagnosis Is Key
Whether your loved suffered a brain injury in an I-65 accident, a Louisville nursing home fall, or another type of accident, you need accurate information in order to make the right decisions for your loved one. For more information about making medical decisions for a loved one who has been brain injured, please talk to your loved one’s doctors.
Medical decisions may not, however, be the only decisions you need to make. If you also have questions about your loved one’s legal rights then we also encourage you to contact us directly via the chat now feature on this website or by phone so that your questions can be answered.