by Playfuls Staff |
10th March 2007
More research is needed on the fate of severely brain-damaged patients, experts at a New York hospital said.[more]
The doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center said the public is confused by news stories involving patients such as Terri Schiavo, and there's not enough known about whether specific patients will recover.
In a commentary in the journal Neurology, the physicians said a nationwide epidemiological study on how and where severely brain-injured patients are cared for should help.
"Right now, we don't even know how many Americans with conditions such as the vegetative state or the minimally conscious state are being cared for in medical centers and nursing homes nationwide," said Dr. Joseph Fins.
"Getting those numbers in a countrywide survey is an essential first step for the kind of research that would help us in the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of these severely debilitating conditions," said Dr. Kathleen Foley.
© 2007 UPI
