What is coma?
What is a vegetative state?
What are the possibilities for consciousness in coma?
What makes a life worth living?
In the wake of Terri Schiavo’s publicly debated fate and the awakenings of patients from their minimally conscious states after as much as 20 years of silence we are finally waking up to these questions. Traumatic brain injury affects more Americans each year than breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, and spinal cord injury combined.1 Many of them will spend time in remote states of consciousness and coma without being able to communicate with the outer world. The fascination with people in comas is everywhere, on magazine covers featuring people like Terri Schiavo, Terry Wallis and Sarah Scantlin, on Coma, Liz Garbus’ HBO special that is giving voice to people who have experienced brain injury, in the newspapers and on radio shows, and in movies such as The Only Thrill, Nova, Just Like Heaven, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. New exciting scientific discoveries are now beginning to validate what we have been noticing and teaching about for years, which is that coma patients’ awareness is much more detailed and complex than previously thought, and so are their chances of significant recovery.
A woman who was thought to have no consciousness is able to play tennis in her mind in a way that was measurable.2 Another person who was given no chance of recovery suddenly speaks after 20 years. People in comas fill hospital beds worldwide, and yet we rarely hear their their stories unless it is the occasional amazing person who suddenly wakes up after many years. In many ways today’s medicine ignores them and denies them any living experience. Over many years of working with coma patients, we have found that this hopelessness is unjustified.
In our practical experience up to a third of the clients we work with who are given no hope of recovery, actually do make significant progress, often returning to the point of being able to speak, walk, and regain their functionality. Inside Coma presents their stories, along with startling research and developments in the fields of psychology, medicine, and alternative healing methods which help us understand and relate to the experiences of those in coma. Here we teach you powerful interventions to help your patients and your loved ones awaken their consciousness while in the coma state. This book helps shift the field of coma treatment from working primarily with healing the body, to healing the whole person, mind, body, and spirit. This shift offers tangible hope to those in these states, to the professionals who work with them, and to their families and loved ones. It advocates for a new ethical sensitivity that gives our patients and loved ones a right to be treated like human beings that continue to have sentient experiences.
Both of the authors, Pierre Morin and Gary Reiss, have been active in this work for more than 15 years. Gary has spent hundreds of hours helping develop and apply these techniques with coma patients all over the world, including the United States, Israel, Switzerland, Cyprus, and England. Gary has taught families and professionals worldwide how to work with coma patients using this method. He has worked extensively with developing the hands-on approach to this work, and also brings in his experience as a family therapist and organizational consultant. Coma Work is a combination of working with the person, the family, and the medical system involved with the patient’s care.
Pierre Morin has worked extensively in the field of brain injury rehabilitation. He was the assistant clinical director of Switzerland’s lead rehabilitation clinic for head traumas. He had the opportunity to implement the concepts and skills presented in this book in the therapeutic program for brain-injured patients. He worked individually with people in coma and taught the medical staff and friends and relatives of the patients some of the sensitive communication skills presented here. He currently assists individuals and families that live through a coma experience, and coaches care teams how to best support the individual recovery process.
Throughout this book, Gary and Pierre will alternate speaking about their personal experiences and their theoretical thoughts.