Can an incompetent person sue?

Can an incompetent person sue?

No.

An incompetent person lacks legal capacity.

Since I am vegetative, I am not conscious. I lack legal capacity.

https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/The+Capacity+to+Sue+or+Be+Sued

When I was initially admitted to the hospital, a representative payee was appointed. I believe it was a law firm. They could have represented me. There's a problem now, though. They were nixed after I opened my eyes so I could pay bills. It was faster and more efficient if I paid. 

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I was found competent to pay bills, but I was left not conscious. My diagnosis should have also been changed at that time, but it wasn't. A vegetable could pay bills? I'm sorry, but the government looks idiotic.

"Semi" was added to vegetative a few years later. I wasn't talking at first and that warranted vegetative. As time passed, I started vocalizing. "Semi" was added. Yay, I was only a vegetable part of the time! I may only be vegetative when I sleep now. That hasn't been monitored.

If people want me to have legal capacity, then I will have to be made conscious. The word "vegetative" will have to be removed.

This was my Music Therapist.

Should We Treat Vegetative and Minimally Conscious Patients as Persons?

“Should We Treat Vegetative and Minimally Conscious Patients as Persons?”

Just because a person is disabled, doesn't mean he or she doesn't understand you. I understood quite well. It is issues like this that hinder me. It begins with the public view.

41% are misdiagnosed. ( https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/opinion/minimally-conscious-brain-civil-rights.html?smid=tw-share) This may be me. If you are a caregiver to a vegetative patient, that person may not actually be vegetative. They might understand everything you say. If I'm not one of the 41%, then I'm recovered. I should never have been treated differently. Do you kick a man (or woman) when he or she is down?

All people are treated equally, no matter color or disability.

Put in disability for color of skin.
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Some doctors, researchers, rehab people, etc thought it was possible to rehab a person from the Persistent Vegetative State to "Consciousness." Well, I am conscious, despite what records say. It is possible that I progressed from PVS (Persistent Vegetative State), to Locked-In Syndrome (LIS), to whatever I am now. I currently speak some, but rely on typing out my thoughts. Speaking some entails about five sentences, but my voice becomes high pitched and hard to understand. Typing is me using my left index finger. The computer comes with accessibility tools that allow me to make capitals and such.

My current diagnosis is Semi-Vegetative. The diagnosis change happened in 2004 after I started vocalizing. Prior, I was PVS due to a stroke. I had never heard the term "semi-vegetative" before and I thought maybe it was good. It sounded good. My background is psychology. It appears that the "vegetative" was kept and consciousness is emerging.

My issue :  I AM UNCONSCIOUS.

I have been conscious since before I could talk. The diagnosis should be Semi-Communicative. Do I have to validate your existence to be conscious? I like the one I get now from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. They say I have to pass a Swallow Study Examination. I have a feeding tube. In other words, I have to swallow in order to be conscious.

Being unconscious means I have no rights. This means I am not a person.

Oops, a huge civil rights mistake is made. The potential is there and in my case it happened. If the mistake happens, but the person dies, it becomes a moot point. In my case I didn't die. At the time of my diagnosis change, I should have been made "quadriplegia with dysarthric speech and limited ataxic movement." I believe "quadriplegia" is a hugely accepted category. Dysarthric speech and ataxia have billable ICD codes. This then opens up my case to research. As it stands now, there is no research and I am a miracle.

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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzEQm2jXils&feature=youtu.be

I will take some lines from this video. There is a lot of information here.
 

Brain injury was placed with mental health. The injury and some of the problems are very physical. Other things like personality change are not physical in nature, as seen. Lumping all brain injury together has been difficult.

Brain Injury is taken seriously. Some states have developed their own legislation, http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/traumatic-brain-injury-legislation.aspx

"We are included in the definition of the people with disabilities." 2:41

"Because a brain injury may result in a disability, many of the federal policies concerning Americans with disabilities apply. But there are also a number of policies specific to people with brain injury." https://www.brainline.org/topic/policy

Disabilities can be seen and unseen. Even if my seen disabilities disappear, the unseen ones remain. Some people only have unseen. It is very difficult for them.

"We have to do this to you for your own good."  4:39

http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2013/04/when-dead-sing.html

"The fact that we may need support isn't a reason to take away our right to have a final say in our own lives." 5:03

"No deprivation of liberty, based on disability" 7:49

This is why I could go on outings with my mother. I'd only leave the hospital for a few hours. My mother had to be CPR certified and received additional specific medical training.

"Forced Interventions" 13:07

You have the right to be who you are. This issue is talked about throughout the video. Some may not understand this wanting to remain disabled.

"Doctors have suggested that I try taking anti-seizure medication, and my choice is absolutely not." 5:15
 

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Disability Rights is part of the Civil Rights movement, but has been lagging.

Vegetable? Not!

Updated 3-1-2014 ; 6-29-2016; 10-8-2019

(My recovery is a separate issue. This only deals with the legal matter.)

To say I'm a vegetable would be deceptive. So what does that say about the American government? Do they really say that you ask? Yes they do. Let me explain.

When I opened my eyes, doctors determined I was brain dead and life support was to be removed. Before that could happen, I responded by blinking my eyes. I was given a PVS or Persistent Vegetative State status. Now if you look at the case of Terri Schiavo, she had this PVS diagnosis. What happened to her would determine the outcome of anyone with a PVS (and brain injury too) diagnosis. With her it was determined there could be no recovery from PVS. Just keep this fact in the back of your mind. We will come back to this.

Now go to my situation. I had slow progression, eventually talking. I was classified "semi-vegetative" but really had no clue what that was. http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2012/02/talking-vegetable.html I thought I was rid of the PVS diagnosis. Actually, I wasn't. I didn't realize there was a court ruling determining my situation. What had happened was doctors couldn't really move me up. They came up with the term "semi-vegetative" meaning nothing more than semi-PVS. So I was still PVS.

FRUSTRATION! Why couldn't I shake this thing? There had to be some sort of rule somewhere. I looked more at the Terri Schiavo case. It was a right-to-life case, but what she had would set the standard for others who had the same problems. She had PVS. Also, she had a brain injury. Her outcome would set the precedent for all PVS and brain injury patients. It was determined no progress would happen therefore it would be okay to end her life.

"No progress would happen." No progress in PVS, and no progress in brain injury. That's why I couldn't shake it. It was legally determined I would make no progress. That's not the truth, though. In an e-mail, "The fact that you can communicate in an intelligent manner is proof in and of itself!" I've been doing lots of things that are cognizant. Yet, I still have the PVS diagnosis. I'm a "talking vegetable."

This issue will have to be dealt with, because if I wanted to, http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2012/03/so-you-wanna-hack.html The Florida Supreme Court made the diagnosis permanent. Once you have it, you always have it. There can be no progress. If, in the future, a person with PVS gets better, he/she can rob a bank and not be charged. PVS already makes the person incompetent, and you can't charge an incompetent person. (Incidentally, researchers this is why your funding is drying up.) Science and politics are getting mixed together.  One discipline is more free to make changes and I'm stuck with a label.

I'm not really vegetative. No one knows what I am. I say recovered conscious. Before this it was a lawsuit over Workman's Comp. First they were saying it was lunch break. It was after when I went to the clinic. My bleed came from an  AVM. These things are congenital (born with). It was ruled a pre-existing condition and I lost. 

George W Bush was President. Oh, I worked for a county, which is small-time govt. Obama cleaned up that clause, but I wasn't grandfathered in. Problem now is that I'm still alive.