A man thought to have been in a vegetative state for 23 years was conscious throughout the entire ordeal.
Rom Houben of Belgium was diagnosed as being in a vegetative state after a car wreck, but doctors now know the 46-year-old man was aware of his surroundings, heard what was being said, but couldn't respond. He has been provided with equipment to read and type since this discovery, and with therapy, he is now able to communicate. Bobby Schindler of Terri's Foundation reacts to the news. "This isn't the first time we've heard this or we've read that something like this has happened where someone has emerged from what doctors were saying...was a persistent vegetative state, and I think it illustrates why we need to stop dehydrating to death these people who are labeled in this highly subjective diagnosis," Schindler contends. Doctors confirm that patients classified as being in a vegetative state are often misdiagnosed, and that "unconsciousness" stamp is one which patients rarely escape. This confirmation leaves one to wonder, says Schindler, if many people who have died in a "vegetative state" were misdiagnosed. "There's no way of telling," Schindler notes. "But don't take my word for it about the inaccuracy of this PVS diagnosis. All you need to do is to look at some recent research that has been done where they have been finding that the Persistent Vegetative State diagnosis is misdiagnosed upwards of 50 percent of the time." He says it is especially shocking because this diagnosis was used for euthanasia advocates to obtain the court order that killed his sister, Terri Schindler Schiavo, by removing her feeding and hydration tubes in March 2005.
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