Coma Or Minimally Conscious State
Original title: Coma, ou etat de conscience minimale
Duration: 13’
Producer: Helene Leroux
Director: Yves Levesque, Normand Grondin
Scientific field: Health
Year: 2005
Country: Canada
Was Terri Schiavo conscious or not? Should she have been saved or allowed to die?
For several years, a team of New York researchers has been using MRI equipment to attempt to see what goes on inside the brains of patients like Schiavo, who seem to live suspended between consciousness and brain death. That is what is called a minimally conscious state-a realm of light and shadow from which the patient sometimes emerges for a few minutes or hours before falling back into unconsciousness. The case in point, that of young Daniel Rios, is fascinating. His doctor has spent a few years providing him with daily stimulus, slowly bringing him back into contact with reality. This points to the potential existence of a transitional state between brain death and consciousness, a condition that is not necessarily permanent.
