Boy in “Hopeless” Vegetative State Awakens
and Steadily Improves

By Hilary White

GRESHAM, Oregon October 10, 2006
(LifeSiteNews.com)
– A young boy, who had previously been
diagnosed as being in a “persistent vegetative
state,” has awakened from a 22 month-long
coma and is breathing on his own.

Devon Rivers collapsed in a seizure during a
phys-ed class in 2004 and his condition was
never explained, though some doctors
suggested it was caused by an unknown viral
infection. Doctors agreed, however, that he had
little hope of recovery.

His mother, Carla Rivers, visited him regularly
and, in addition to physical therapy by his
paediatric nursing home to keep his limbs
supple, she talked to him in the belief that
coma patients can retain their hearing and
some understanding.

"For two years the doctors said there was no
hope," said Carla Rivers. "Everything that
happens in Devon's life is a gain. There's no
losses."

Despite the doctors’ gloomy prognosis, eleven
year-old Devon is now being prepared for
occupational therapy to help him re-learn
motor skills and is able to play with his
siblings. Doctors cannot explain the reason
either for his unexpected awakening or for
his steady recovery.

In August of this year his mother, Carla
Rivers, noticed that he began turning his
head to follow movement; instead of a blank
stare, he was reacting to his environment.
Days later Devon was breathing without a
respirator.

Carla Rivers said, “Devon may make a full
recovery or what we see today may be what
we get…God's plan is greater than ours.
There's nothing we can do to force it any
sooner or hold it back,” she said.

Coma patients and others with severe
cognitive disabilities have been labelled
“hopeless” only to recover frequently
enough that some doctors and ethicists
are questioning the accuracy of the diagnosis
of “persistent vegetative state” (PVS).

The diagnosis is ambiguous in that symptoms
of patients can vary greatly and still be called
“vegetative.” A 1996 study published in the
British Medical Journal showed that 43%
of patients diagnosed with PVS do not qualify
for the diagnosis.

In 2003, Kate Adamson, a former coma patient
who had been diagnosed PVS, appeared on the
television talk show the O'Reilly Factor. She said
that, like Terri Schiavo, the hospital had removed
her feeding tube that was only reinserted after
eight days when her lawyer-husband threatened
to sue the hospital.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Diagnosis of Persistent Vegetative State
Questioned as Former Patient Speaks Out
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/nov/03111207.html