I'm going to pick on this definition, because it is not possibly true since I am the one writing this.The definition I am using comes from
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/persistent+vegetative+state. There are many others, but this uses the word, "irreversible."
persistent vegetative state
n
(Medicine) Med
an irreversible condition, resulting from brain damage, characterized
by lack of consciousness, thought, and feeling, although reflex
activities (such as breathing) continue Abbreviation PVS
If this was "irreversible", then I wouldn't be writing this. I was thinking the definition of MCS, minimally conscious state could just be tweaked, but you will see this, too, will need major revision.
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/minimally+conscious+state
Minimally conscious state |
Classification and external resources |
MeSH | D018458 |
A
minimally conscious state (MCS) is a condition distinct from
coma or the
vegetative state,
[1] in which a patient exhibits
deliberate, or
cognitively mediated, behavior
[2] often enough, or consistently enough, for clinicians to be able to distinguish it from entirely
unconscious, reflexive responses.
Auditory processing can differ between MCS and PVS.
[3] fMRI response to the patient's own name has been suggested as a technique to distinguish between MCS and PVS.
[4]
Prognosis
Patients with severe
brain damage may progress through stages of
unconsciousness with eyes closed (
coma),
to unconsciousness with eyes open (vegetative state), to a stage of
"inconsistent, erratic responsiveness" (minimally conscious state).
[5]
It is not known whether patients in MCS can process
emotion. MCS is thought to have a more favorable outcome than persistent vegetative state.
[6]
Doctors
in the USA recently succeeded in bringing a man who had been under MCS
for six years back to consciousness by planting electrodes deep inside
his brain.
[7]
I see PVS as occurring on a linear progression of consciousness. It occurred in me prior to MCS.
CONSCIOUSNESS
_____________________________________________________________________>>> COMA PVS MCS EMERGING CONSCIOUSNESS
What I experienced was closer to the diagram in
http://www.coma.ulg.ac.be/inform.html. This lists Locked-In Syndrome (LIS) as a separate state. LIS can be separate, but in my case it wasn't. It was intertwined with the PVS and MCS states.
BOTH PVS AND MCS WOULD BE ON THIS LINE. They are not separate states of consciousness.