Subj : Re: What's happening? To : alt.tv.er From : Sharon Three Date : Fri Oct 14 2005 17:34:08 From Newsgroup: alt.tv.er wrote in message news:1129306962.691128.40060@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com... > > Nicole Floyd wrote: >> Coma girl...yeah right. >> >> No one can talk like that after being in a coma for over a few months. >> Next >> she pull a Kill Bill and be able to wiggle her toe. > > Here's some examples, not so far out: > > http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/23/AR2005072301121_pf.html > > (I got curious after seeing the episode.) > While it's not completely unheard of for people in persistent vegetative states to wake up, they are usually not so coherent or aware of their surroundings from the first moment they start to awaken, it's a much more gradual process. In that article you posted, the woman screamed for months and months before therapists were able to try to get her to speak and, even then, it took her 3 months to say, "Hi mom". Waking up fully coherent and able to speak clearly and in complete sentences after 6 years of not speaking at all does not happen in the real world. It would take weeks or months for Claire to develop the muscles needed for speech in order to speak clearly again, just as it takes a baby a long time to learn to coordinate the movements of its jaw, lips and tongue to actually speak. I'm sure Phyl knows more about this than I do, but it's well night impossible that Claire would wake up in the fashion we saw on the show. Doc Sharon .