NN+Head+Injury+Article

[|Brain Injury Article]

A man, who is 38 years old, spent over five years in a state where he couldn't talk, and only occasionally respond by moving his thumb to say yes or no. This man was put into this state after being mugged in 1999. During the mugging, the man was kicked repeatedly in the head, leading to a severe head injury. Today, however, he is able to talk and interact with his family and friends because of a new treatment where the doctors implant metal rods into the brain and send a current into the brain. This operation works because for some head injuries the brain's nerves are not severed, only severely damaged. The treatment could be highly beneficial to people with severe brain injuries because it would allow many people who are in similar states to be able to walk and talk with their family and friends again. Some doctors say that since the patient cannot give their consent to the operation, it is not going to be seen as an ethical treatment. There is also the problem that the treatment might not always work. An example would be Terri Schiavo. Terri Schiavo died in 2005 after a long debate about how she should be treated. In her case, the damage to the brain was so severe that the treatment made no difference to her state. Despite such cases, doctors are still hopeful that this new treatment will help some of the 100,000 to 300,000 people who would be otherwise "unteateable" to get treatment and to recover.