ER comment by Nancy Valko, RN

I missed this one, but need to acknowledge that occasionally there is a glimmer of light in the darkness... from Nancy Valko, RN:

Comment:
After the Law and Order episode about a Terri Schiavo-like situation where the family kills the husband with the help of a minister, it was a pleasant surprise to see last Thursday's ER's episode include a story about a "comatose" or "vegetative" woman who suddenly woke up after 6 years. The episode was short: the woman had had a head injury in a car accident that killed her mother and was "dumped" by a nursing home to the ER where she needed antibiotics for an infection and reinsertion of a dislodged feeding tube. Much was made of the fact that these problems could have easily been handled in the nursing home rather than the ER.

When the young woman suddenly woke up, she asked about her mother and remembered that they were going to the mall when the accident happened. The doctors were surprised but nothing was said about the implications of such a recovery, not even how rare it is for a patient to suddenly wake up.

In the end, the ER personnel just contacted unseen family members.

Nancy V.