Affiliations: DEAL Communication Centre, 538 Dandenong Road, E. Malvern, Vic. 3162, Australia | [x] Department of Neurosciences, Ospedale “Santa Maria della Misericordia”, Udine, Italy | [y] Concussion Care Center of Virginia, Inc., Ltd., Tree of Life Services, Inc., Pinnacle Rehabilitation, Inc., Glen Allen, VA, USA
Correspondence:
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Address for correspondence: 74 Rose Street, Brunswick, Vic 3056, Australia. Tel./Fax: +61 3 93860761; E-mail: chrisb@vicnet.net.au
Abstract: Jennett and Plum's 1972 naming of post-coma unresponsiveness as “persistent vegetative state (PVS)” characterised the condition as essentially irrecoverable and insentient. The evidence for these propositions was always weak, and they have been largely disproved by more recent research. Nonetheless, the definition and the attitudes it embodies remain generally accepted, resting as they do on a firm foundation of medical attitudes to disability and a public eagerness to evade uncomfortable facts. The first step in altering our approach to people with this form of communication impairment must be to rectify our understanding of the terminology.
