The Key to the Prison

                Being trapped is one of the worst feelings a human can experience.  Our freedom and lives being taken and imprisoned is nothing short of torture. One of my personal worse fears is being trapped inside my own mind.  It’s something in this world that is not uncommon.  Alzheimer’s, comas, and strokes are just some of the things that can trap a person all alone in their own mind.

                This week, a scientific breakthrough was made for those who are trapped in their bodies. Doctors can now tell if a person in a vegetable state is conscious or not through their brain activity.  This is possible and you can read more here (http://sciencealert.com.au/news/20141710-26359.html).  

Hospitals do as much as they can to help these scary medical situations. Providing beds, vitamins and nutrients to keep them alive, and many other amenities to try and make the process as easy as humanly possible. They can’t do everything though.  Knowing what a makes a person comfortable and what they need when they can’t tell you makes accomplishing that goal hard, almost impossible. This is why I think being stuck in a situation where you can’t communicate, would be horrific. People sticking needles into me, bathing me, and monitoring me without asking me about it, must be the worst feeling ever.

This procedure cannot read a person’s mind. It cannot tell us what they want and need.  It can only tell us if they have some brain activity.  If they have some level of consciousness, they still cannot tell us what hurts. Being conscious would be so much worse being stuck in a situation like this. Hearing people might be great but not being able to communicate back to them must be torture. Doctors and families knowing the information of whether the patient is conscious when in a situation such as life support, etc., is extremely helpful in tough decisions. Knowing this information can make that decision of pulling the plug or not so much easier. Giving families more closure to such hard and difficult times is the most valuable thing about this. This breakthrough may not change anything, treatment wise, or even care-wise, but one thing that is for sure is that it will make this unbearable process a little bit easier.