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To the Editor:
Racine et al.1 described some aspects of Terri Schiavo’s life and death. Dr. Bernat’s2 accompanying editorial comments on the media aspects of this case.
In 1991, I was part of a team at the University of California, San Francisco, that evaluated the brain and cognitive functions of Terri Schiavo and other patients in persistent vegetative states (PVS). These evaluations were carried out as part of an experimental treatment protocol conducted by Hosobuchi and Yingling.3
After presurgical evaluations were complete, Dr. Hosobuchi implanted 2 patients with stimulating electrodes in the high cervical spinal cord, and he implanted 4 patients with electrodes in the centrum medianum of the thalamus. Unfortunately, most of the patients in the study did not exhibit improvement because the extent of their brain damage was too severe to allow recovery of normal functions. Because Terri Schiavo was a member of the nonresponsive group, I agree with Michael Schiavo’s decision to end his wife’s life in 2005. Fifteen years seems long enough—too long, some might argue—to remain in such a state with no chance for improvement.
I was motivated to write this correspondence by stories I have heard about several different individuals who unexpectedly entered a comatose state. In each of these cases, within 1 week of the onset of coma, physicians told family members …
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