If you sustained serious head injuries in a traffic accident yet could choose between being in a vegetative state and unaware of your plight, or minimally conscious - perhaps able to recognise voices, pain, signal to your family in a very limited way but little else -which would you choose? What if you were deciding on behalf of a close family member? This dilemma has been highlighted by news of the rousing of a 26-year-old man from a vegetative state into a minimally conscious state, following a treatment called transcranial magnetic stimulation (see page 8). It is too early to say whether TMS was directly responsible for the man's awakening as some people spontaneously wake from a vegetative state.
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