Taking a Look at a Coma

This poses a challenge for the neocortical view, but has the potential to be remedied. "It may be objected that, in ordinary language, it makes sense to say of someone that he is irreversibly comatose but still alive. This must be admitted. … Do we value "life" even if unconscious, or do we value life only as a vehicle for consciousness? Our attitude to the doctrine of the sanctity of life very much depends on our answer to this question." (Glover, The Philosophy of Death, pg. 349) Is this a life worth living just for the sake of it? Glover points out that it is dangerous to separate lives into "worth living" and "not worth living", however, it appears as though society has reached a point at which this very distinction is being made in certain cases. Cases for euthanasia argue that an individual's suffering is capable of escalating to the point that death would be preferable over further pain and/or deterioration; examples include individuals who suffer severely from ALS, Huntington's Disease, various forms of cancer, etc. Although an individual who has experience neocortical brain death does not feel constant pain as a direct consequence of upper brain death, the process of sustaining the body is incredibly harsh and painful. This pain increases exponentially if said patient has opted to forgo any extraordinary measures and must be left to die of their own accord. Even with medical intervention the patient is at increased risk of contractors (which cause the hands and feet to curl and lose function), tissue breakdown, bed sores, sepsis, shock, bloodlust and many other afflictions that would eventually lead to death. For this reason, it seems clear that the value of being alive is not worth allowing the persistence of unconscious and, consequentially, a painful

they once did in their everyday lives. Also, the patient would have to be of sound mind and free

How an injury to the head can do damage to the brain varies. Brain swelling and disruption of blood supply are some direct causes of damage (Kolb & Whishaw, 2009). However, neurological damage develops after (also known as secondary injuries) the immediate moment of impact (Ghajar, 2000). In other words even minor head injuries can lead to lasting disabilities and that the injuries are amassed. Meaning that a minor injury can result in a major impairment (Ponsford, Sloan, & Snow, 2012).

With the latter of the two of them all being the more frequent causes of brain injury. It has never been clear exactly on how much damage is done and how the symptoms are caused when the injury happens. There has been reported that there is cellular damage that happens in the concussed brain. Currently it is thought that structural and neuropsychiatric factors may be responsible for these effects.

The brain is an organ that is essential to everything people do. Whether it is remembering something or just talking to someone the brain is in charge of it. So when a person takes a blow to the head or body the brain shakes inside of the skull and they can have a

Original research related to sedation management occurred in the year 2000 by Kress, Pohlman, O ' Connor, and Hall. Their findings served as a landmark study and initiated the impetus related to improving our sedation practices. According to Kress et al. (2000), daily interruption of sedation led to a decrease in the number of days on the ventilator in the intensive care unit. Several studies since this time have focused on the influence of sedation protocols, and outcomes. This paper will review the synthesis of the discovered studies and highlight the noted contraindications and inconsistencies. Also, explanations including a preliminary conclusion will be discussed.

The minimal brain activity was not the same between the two groups, but very similar which in itself is peculiar. Because of this the question then arises, is the patient an irregular vegetative state or perhaps something else all together? I think consciousness needs to be more defined before experiments can go trying to prove if people are or not. Furthermore, I think perhaps in this case specifically the patient in question might have been suffering more from the science community as a whole generalizing and not having enough of this type of patient show up to adequately come up with a better type of diagnosis than a vegetative state as opposed to rather or not the patient was conscious or

Traumatic brain injury is any damage caused to the brain. Individuals with TBI may show aphasia-like symptoms, yet the characteristics of TBI include mostly cognitive processes deficits. Those characteristics include disrupt orientation, attention, memory, visual processing, and executive functions problems. Penitents with TBI experience a blackout that can last anywhere between a few minutes up to months and usually wake up confused and disoriented. They do not have any recollection of the events that occurred. In addition to the common characteristics mentioned earlier, TBI patients exhibit communication deficits that relate to poor cognitive functioning such as problems with word finding, grammatical, spelling, reading, and writing. The cause of TBI is very straightforward, unlike SLI or ASD. Any injury to the head, for example motor vehicle accidents, falls, blast trauma, and more, can cause a TBI. These in turn can cause damage to multiple areas of the brain and impair motor, speech, language, and cognitive functions as discussed. It is important to note that unlike ASD that usually

Changes in the brain will be that some parts are not getting the blood supply which then leads to dead tissue causing a form of disability depending on the area of the brain affected.

A concussion is a trauma-induced change in mental status, which includes confusion and amnesia, and may cause someone to lose consciousness for a bit . It happens when the head hits or gets hit by an object or when the brain is struck against the skull with a strong force to cause temporary loss of functions. In addition, concussions can cause brain damage. Concussions can be caused from motor vehicle accidents or from playing sports like football.

Delirium in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has become a genuine phenomenon and can be problematic for the patient and the staff caring for them. Delirium occurs when a patient is placed in an unfamiliar environment and has to endure the stress of not just the hospitalization but the stimuli of the environment, which can cause disturbances in consciousness. Patients can become confused, anxious, and agitated; making this difficult for the staff to correctly diagnosis and care for them. Sleep deprivation and environmental factors along with neurotransmitters are strongly related to the occurrence of ICU delirium. ICU staff needs to become more educated on prevention, detection, and proper treatment for the patient experiencing this

Until this century, it was rare that brain-dead patients could be kept alive for long periods of time. However, as technological prowess has increased, it has recently become possible to keep a patient alive without higher brain functioning for years and even decades. But, as is always the case with new technology and knowledge,

It is also unclear if it is the brain injury itself that causes the result and if it is the same for healthy people.

An assessment of the level of consciousness (LOC) should be carried out during the primary survey of all patients, using the ABCDE approach Cole (2009: 28). Any initial or subsequent reduction in the LOC of the patient may be caused by hypoxia; hypovolaemia; head injury; drug or medicine use; hypoglycaemia; hypothermia or alcohol ingestion (Cole, 2009:44).

To others, socializing is very important to life. And for others, communication is the key. The definition of death is "the act or fact of dying, permanent ending of all life in a person, animal, or plant" according to Webster's Dictionary. Mason defines death in terms of "irreversible failure of the cardiopulmonary system or consequently as a permanent state of tissue anoxia." (43). Another definition that should be addressed is the definition of brain death. According to Stedman's Medical Dictionary, brain death is "in the presence of cardiac activity, the permanent loss of cerebral function, manifested clinically by absence of purposive responses to external stimuli, absence of cephalic reflexes, apnea, and an isoelectric electroencephalogram for at least 30 minutes in the absence of hypothermia and poisoning by central nervous system depressants." (142). If the heart is functioning, but the cerebrum is not functioning, the patient can be declared to be brain dead. To determine if the cerebrum is functioning, doctors would analyze the responses of the patient to external stimuli, run an electroencephalogram, check for cephalic reflexes, and check respiration of the patient. Lamb states that the absence of spontaneous respiration and circulation is not a sign of death, which is determined only when the physician is satisfied that the brain has ceased to function (31). Testing for respiration and circulation are simply