Be Excellent To Each Other

A somewhat interested counterpoint to the story: from James Randi.

Where they liquidise kangeroo anuses to drip into his mouth?

It's a good point. I can't wipe my bottom at the moment as I'm sitting on it and I feel quite sad.

Shame the title (and indeed much of the article) reads like a Daily Mail piece.

The novelty wears off once you have a child. Take last night for instance: I'd just had a lovely crap and had barely finished before being told that Zioette had just shat in her nappy. So I barely had time to wipe my own arse before having to wipe hers too. It's just not cricket.

So yeah, 23 years eh? Fuck.

Having a Baby (and also cleaning up after your shit machine of a dog) kind of give you pooh immunity, don't you think?

Firstly this is a story of a man in a coma, this story is wrapped in great human tragedy. It is impossible to appreciate the pain and suffering the family has been through and equally impossible to untangle those emotions from this story.

This post is written with the utmost respect for all involved.

The Telegraph, the BBC News, the Guardian and no doubt all the other papers have been enthusiastically reporting on the incredible story of Rom Houben who was thought to be in a coma for 23 years but was actually wide awake and conscious the whole time.

The story is so popular because of that morbid fascination we, the public, hold for such a literal torture. To be trapped like that is akin to Hell on Earth. It's also popular because of the thankful release for Rom. Quotes from Rom saying "I'll never forget the day that they discovered me, It was my second birth" can't help but fill you with elation for him.

I want to tread carefully here because I don't have full Internet access, as I'm posting from behind a firewall, but I think that very well meaning people are misleading others and, I suspect, themselves in thinking that this poor gentleman has regained consciousness.

I so want to be wrong about that.

Look again at the video the BBC has of Rom. What is happening at 12 seconds in? The helper is 'facilitating movement'. She supports his hand whilst he types.

Whilst he can't hold his hand he can make the tiniest movements indicating the direction he wants to move his hand. He can then make a tiny movement when he wants her to stop. Another tiny movement when he wants her to press a button. You get the idea.

Look at the speed and grace and control with which she interprets his requests. It is almost as though she is the one typing.

And that's because I think she is.

Firstly, "facilitated motion" is a technique with a huge amount of criticism behind it. Similar cases to this have happened and when the helper is present in the room the patient is able to talk descriptively about the events around him or her. When the helper leaves and the patient is shown or told some information, then the patient is no longer able to discuss that information when the helper returns. It is the most simple of tests and the most crushing. It would appear that it is the helper, knowingly or otherwise, who is typing those words.

Secondly, quotes like:
“I shall never forget the day when they discovered what was truly wrong with me – it was my second birth. I want to read, talk with my fiends via the computer and enjoy my life now that people know I am not dead.”

All these things require him to be able to focus his eyes. Indeed he is looking at the screen in the video to know which letters he wants her to press. The speed at which she types implies that he has good control of his eyes and focus.

I do believe, and hope, that a man who can move his eyes and focus on objects would have been able to get the attention of someone in 23 years.

This is not to say the FM can not play a role when people have lost some control of their bodies, but the dangers of it should be obvious.

This story is a very painful and heartfelt one. The emotions of the family and friends are real. And whilst I do so dearly hope I am wrong, at this moment I'm shocked at the way the media has reproduced this story in a way that seems to be purely so people can be fascinated by the chilling story with an apparent ill regard for the truth.

In addition if this event is too reopen the debate on the right to die of coma patients then it is doing so by indicating how easily we can be mislead.

Again, my thoughts are with Rom and his family.

This post comes from behind a firewall, I've not had full access to the intInternetr the time to research the story properly. I would love to be wrong. Please, please correct me. This is an on-line work in progress article. Rather than not have time to finish and publish I'm using posterous and a public sketch pad. Ideas that survive can get fully published.

Look again at the video the BBC has of Rom. What is happening at 12 seconds in? The helper is 'facilitating movement'. She supports his hand whilst he types.

Whilst he can't hold his hand he can make the tiniest movements indicating the direction he wants to move his hand. He can then make a tiny movement when he wants her to stop. Another tiny movement when he wants her to press a button. You get the idea.

Look at the speed and grace and control with which she interprets his requests. It is almost as though she is the one typing.