David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
Brief Awakening From a Coma
By MINDY SINK, New York Times
March 9, 2007
DENVER, March 8 ? A woman who has been in a coma-like state for more than six years awoke for three days this week to talk with family members and eat her favorite foods before relapsing.
?She was smiling and grinning and told my staff she wanted to go to a club, even doing a little chair dance in her wheelchair,? said one of her doctors, Randall Bjork.
The woman, Christa Lilly, 49, suffered a cardiac arrest in November 2000. Since then, her mother, Minnie Smith, has been caring for her at home. Ms. Smith said Ms. Lilly had awakened five times, sometimes for hours, then for days.
?We may have to rethink these people that have been called vegetative in nursing homes who may have some awareness of their horrible circumstances,? said Dr. Bjork. ?It goes against the grain of what we thought.?
Ms. Lilly, who has four daughters, including a 12-year-old, and three grandchildren, awakens without warning. On Sunday her mother, 74, said the same thing to her that she does every day, ?Hi, baby; how you doing?? And this time Ms. Lilly replied, ?I?m fine.?
Although Ms. Lilly is fed through a tube when not awake, Ms. Smith said she took her daughter out for her favorite foods this week ? catfish, hush puppies, cake and ice cream.
Dr. Bjork said that he had been skeptical of Ms. Smith?s previous reports of her daughter?s waking states, but that he was now a believer. He said Ms. Lilly was in a ?minimally conscious state? rather than a persistent vegetative state.
Dr. Bjork said he would like to try to stimulate Ms. Lilly back to a wakeful state through various methods, but Ms. Smith is reluctant.
?I don?t want my daughter to be a guinea pig for nobody,? she said Thursday. ?The good Lord is letting me know she is there, and when he is ready, he?ll bring her out and she?ll stay out.?
By MINDY SINK, New York Times
March 9, 2007
DENVER, March 8 ? A woman who has been in a coma-like state for more than six years awoke for three days this week to talk with family members and eat her favorite foods before relapsing.
?She was smiling and grinning and told my staff she wanted to go to a club, even doing a little chair dance in her wheelchair,? said one of her doctors, Randall Bjork.
The woman, Christa Lilly, 49, suffered a cardiac arrest in November 2000. Since then, her mother, Minnie Smith, has been caring for her at home. Ms. Smith said Ms. Lilly had awakened five times, sometimes for hours, then for days.
?We may have to rethink these people that have been called vegetative in nursing homes who may have some awareness of their horrible circumstances,? said Dr. Bjork. ?It goes against the grain of what we thought.?
Ms. Lilly, who has four daughters, including a 12-year-old, and three grandchildren, awakens without warning. On Sunday her mother, 74, said the same thing to her that she does every day, ?Hi, baby; how you doing?? And this time Ms. Lilly replied, ?I?m fine.?
Although Ms. Lilly is fed through a tube when not awake, Ms. Smith said she took her daughter out for her favorite foods this week ? catfish, hush puppies, cake and ice cream.
Dr. Bjork said that he had been skeptical of Ms. Smith?s previous reports of her daughter?s waking states, but that he was now a believer. He said Ms. Lilly was in a ?minimally conscious state? rather than a persistent vegetative state.
Dr. Bjork said he would like to try to stimulate Ms. Lilly back to a wakeful state through various methods, but Ms. Smith is reluctant.
?I don?t want my daughter to be a guinea pig for nobody,? she said Thursday. ?The good Lord is letting me know she is there, and when he is ready, he?ll bring her out and she?ll stay out.?
