Another scientific breakthrough:
A brain-damaged man who could communicate only with slight eye or thumb movements for six years can speak again, after stimulating electrodes were placed in his brain, researchers report.
The 38-year-old also regained the ability to chew and swallow, which allows him to be spoon-fed, rather than relying on nourishment through a tube in his belly.
The man’s brain was injured during an assault, he spent six years with only occasional signs of consciousness and no useful movement of his limbs. In an experiment, researchers implanted electrodes in his brain for a procedure called deep brain stimulation, which is routinely done for Parkinson’s disease and some other illnesses.
They turned the electrodes on and off over six months to test their effect, and reported the results in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature. The man, who was not identified at the family’s request, now has them on throughout the day.
Apparently his first words were support for the surge- at least that is what the Powerline is reporting.
In all seriousness, I just posted this story so you all could be on the lookout for the first idiot who claims this is proof Terri Schiavo could have lived.
Remfin
As I understand it this was the experimental treatment Michael Schiavo had done on her in California and it didn’t work. It’s why they had to rely on CAT scans and couldn’t do an MRI.
jg
Damn you Scott Beauchamp!!!
Rex
A friend of a friend was afflicted with a Parkinson’s like disease that I cannot remember the name of. He was outfitted with electrodes into his brain that provide deep brain stimulation and the battery packs are two packets embedded in his chest. The controller is like a remote control that he carries in his pocket. He gave us a demonstration of what happens when he turns it off and it is not dissimilar to Parkinson’s tremors. When he clicks on the remote again he returns to a state that is absolutely normal seeming in almost every way. It gives me hope that we might actually start to see medical advances on par with what we were capable of in the first three-quarters of the 20th century…beyond pills for every conceivable ailment that big pharma can convince your doctor to prescribe.
Dreggas
Out of my god damned head. This is what I was thinking when I read the story.
Dreggas
Oops, sorry thought Tim had posted the thing but it was really John. Anyways it still applies, out of my head damn you!
EL
Actually, the linked article addresses Terri Schiavo specifically:
So I don’t doubt that the terribots at Free Republic will post it as “proof” that Terri Schiavo could have sat up and recited the constitution if only she had “had the right treatment,” but she had a deep brain stimulator and it didn’t do anything for her.
Dreggas
I think the majority on the right need a “deep brain stimulator” but then again that does require having a brain in the first place.
jake
What Dreggas said. CNN had something on that before they started covering the collapsed bridge in Minn.
IanY77
OK, so I got $50 on Malkin….
jake
And one day we might develop that “right treatment.” And it may well involve stem cells.
And any remaining Terri-ists will scream “Not that kind of right treatment!”
I hope I’m around (and alert) for that one.
Ted
Another thing the wingnuts may use to argue Schiavo would have recovered is this.
But in that case the man’s brain had decades to adjust and move brain functions around, and still could only keep him at an IQ of 75. 50% of Schiavo’s brain (the outer portion, if I recall, meaning the most complex parts) were destroyed in one event. There’s no coming back from that.
Bubblegum Tate
Oh, she could’ve come back from it–if only somebody had been allowed to give her a sandwich and some water, which she was totally asking for and definitely wouldn’t have choked and drowned her respictively.
BTW, I was gonna bet on Malkin as the first wingnut to take the predicable Schiavo stance, but since I got beaten to that one, then my choice is Sean Hannity, who will announce he has “shocking new developments that could have saved Terri Schiavo’s life!”
myiq2xu
Maybe if we attach a couple of electrodes to Alberto Gonzales it will stimulate his memory.
That wouldn’t be torture, because he has brown skin!
Bubblegum Tate
Respectively, that is, not respictively.
myiq2xu
As long as you say it respectfully
Psycheout
This demonstrates that the state-sanctioned murder of Terri was wholly unjustified. Human beings should not be murdered by the government.
Psycheout
It’s little wonder that Terri Shaivo’s brother, Bobby Schindler, supports Sam Brownback. Even Norma McCorvey (Roe v Wade) backs Brownback.
Bubblegum Tate
Wait, isn’t Bobby Schindler the result of a time-travelling Bobby Fisher’s gay tryst with that dude Schindler from Schindler’s List?
Andrew
Psycheout says:
I’ll take this as radical opposition to the war in Iraq. I’m impressed by the Gandhi-esque level of pacifism.
David
*checks NRO website*
Nope, no K-Lo posts in the Corner… yet.
Give her another 12 hours, though. I’m sure she’ll throw out a mindless one-liner and a link somewhere amongst her 500 daily postings (after all, quantity does makes up for quality).
jake
Oh forget it, the Code Yellows are gearing up for FreakOutXTREME over the bridge collapse. The Revive Terri! revival will have to wait.
Shall I link to Michelle Malkin’s site? Nope.
But if you can stomach it, watching folks convince themselves that DHS is wrong about it not being terrorist related is rather interesting. What the fuck do they want?
Yes! The Terrists hit us again! We won! We won! … What?
Steve
Well, I hate to be the one to tell you, but Terri Schiavo absolutely could have lived. In fact, if she couldn’t have lived, they wouldn’t have had to kill her!
taodon
Oh, and so could all those damned Parisians with syphilis had we just had the cure 150 years earlier! *shakes fist at long dead Parisian whores*
Psycheout
Some of you are rather cold-blooded. Why do you hate life?
IanY77
BT:
Always bet ol’ “Tagalog Thunder” Malkin. Safest bet in town
Ted
Fine. Let your family know you want to be kept alive in a vegetative state for decades, should that ever happen to you, if you want. Why are you so cold-blooded as to want to make that decision for everyone else?
Oh and Psycheout, is the sun the center of the solar system? Or is it the earth? Please let us know your thoughts on that.
EL
First of all, dishonest debate technique. I’ll bet a poll of those posting here would find that most of us rather like life.
What I hate is people trying to impose their ideas about end of life decisions on me and my family. You mnake decisions for yours, and I’ll make my own, thank you. I don’t want to be kept alive in that state, and I don’t want the federal government taking that decision away from me and my family.
I also have no respect for those who lie or spin the facts of the case.
Andrew
The answer is simple:
Beauchamp.
The Other Steve
If you haven’t seen on the news yet. Minneapolis had a major bridge collapse over the Mississippi. It was about a half mile long, 8 lanes across, and around 60 feet off the water. But I believe two lanes were closed each direction as part of a resurfacing project.
Thus far they’re saying 9 people killed, over 30 injured. But they’re still not certain how many people are unaccounted for yet.
Anyway, someone please ask Senator Stevens to give Senator Coleman a call. We’re in need of some bridge funding, and ours actually goes somewhere.
JWeidner
Psycheout:
I take it we can count on your support at the next rally aimed at eliminating the death penalty?
Psycheout
That can be arranged.
TOS, we at B4B are praying for your city. Was it terrorism or big government that’s to blame? Time will tell.
Balloon Juice doesn’t seem to be interested in your plight. Rest assured that B4B is.
Psycheout
Fixed for moron JWeidner.
Jeffrey Kramer
“Psycheout” is one of the “conservative” personae on the parody site “Blogs for Brownback. Sorry if I’m spoiling anybody’s fun.
Ted
Ah, you’re back. Can you please tell us whether the sun or the earth is the center of the solar system and/or the universe? Those of us who are not lunatics/retards would love to hear your opinion on that. (But of course we won’t, as you’re at least smart enough to know when to hide the crazy.)
bago
Great. Now not only do we have to worry about big pharma, but now we have to worry about big electrode.
DAMN YOU SCIENCE!
jake
Hey TOS, hope you and yours are all right.
If I see Sen. Stevens I’ll be sure to shout your suggestion down his big brass ear trumpet.
Dulcie
Science has a well known liberal bias.
Pb
…or so we hope. Yeah, they’re right up there with Answers in Genesis, Conservapedia, the Creation Museum, and QubeTV (warning: scary clip!), which is to say, totally indistinguishable from the rest of the batshit-insane fringe right-wingers…
jrg
I’m going to go with Glenn Beck.
For the record, Terri Schiavo just did not have the willpower to come out of it. Like all liberals, Schiavo could not stop gorging herself on the free government cheese coming out of the feeding tube.
She had been bathed in heavenly Republican prayer manna. All of her sins had been forgiven (even not burning a cross on her gay neighbor’s yard). She recovered her full brain function… Yet she still wanted that free feeding tube, and sat waiting for it to come back on, until she passed.
I know this because Bill Frist is like Edgar Cayce and Jesus combined.
How come this fancy-pants gets “electrodes” instead of good-old Republican prayer manna?
mclaren
Just think of the possibilities. Why, if this technology could be applied to the drunk-driving C student in the Oval Office, he might even be able to produce a coherent sentence…
Humorless Litmus
Thank you, Pb, Ted and El. Psycheout, your satiric frivolity has no place in contemporary liberalism. We are very, very serious people around here, and can’t tell the difference between parody and the real thing anymore anyway.
Faux News
This pitiful “psycheout” is no Darrell, and certainly no Stormy. I tell you those were the good ole days of BJ!
I have to go now and yell at a bunch of kids who are walking on my front lawn.
Zifnab
Slow down there, even science has its limits.
The Other Steve
Uhh, thanks Psycheout… I think.
Punchy
Deep What Stimulation?
Oh…brain.
/closes magazine
Dennis-SGMM
Electrodes hell. Everybody knows that ingesting mass quantities of booze and cocaine is the way to build up a mind.
EL
If Psycheout is a parody, the writing is frightening close to the non parody posters at Free Republic on the subject of Terri Schiavo.
Tulkinghorn
Psycheout is not just parody, but a true labor of love on the part of a very talented person. As far as I know he and Dougj have never been seen in the same room together. Also, his blogroll links to scrutator, a collection of spoofs that I have not seen around here lately, either.
I am sure I am not spilling any beans here. I mean, his name is Psycheout, right?
AkaDad
After completing a video diagnosis of Schiavo, you could clearly see she was blinking “save me” in morse code.
ezsmirkzz
Thanks for the laugh John, they are hard to come by these days.
Dreggas
The answer to that is quite simple, it allows the people you parody to exist. Sorry but stupidity and ignorance should be painful.
demimondian
I don’t believe that Psycheout is a persona written by DougJ. Neither hie punctuation nor his spelling patterns match. In fact, AFAICT, he’s not any of the regulars here.
demi “literary forensics is fun!” mondian
tBone
Are we sure he’s a parody? Sounds like a pretty typical rightwing hack to me.
Dreggas
At this point there’s no way to tell so I am being kind.
cain
So does this mean that Bush will be cured of his speech ailment? He does seem to be forgetting things quite often.
cain
BIRDZILLA
But wait the radical greens including PAUL EHRLICH was want him euthinised becuase thye say they serve no purpose SCREW THOSE WACKOS LET THIS GUY LIVE
Psycheout
Well said, BIRDZILLA, whatever it was.