Hi guys!
I've gotten a few comments and questions regarding the rationale behind the medical treatment of the comatose man in the story and stuff like that, so without going into a detailed explanation of the story, I just thought I'd offer a few potential clarifications regarding the medical aspects of the story.
Lot of the comments were regarding "implausabilities" of the story, and sure -you do have to be allowed a certain degree of artistical freedom, but I assure you I have even spent lots of time bothj researching this as well as consulting two doctors and specialists regarding this topic, so it wasn't written down on a whim, but rather worked-through if I can say so myself. Anyway -here's what was intended:
Here goes...
*After many years in a coma the metabolism is severely reduced and patients very often get increased sesitivity to infections and reduced immune system.
*As a treatment to an acquired infection (unspecified) the doctors administered an antibioics treatment with chloramphenicol (noted in the booklet)
* A very, very rare side effect of this is that the patient can develop aplastic anemia. This is a condition in which the production red blood cells is severely reduced due to lack of erythropoetine in the bone marrow
* The doctor, having given up almost all hope of bringing this person back, especially with the newly worsened condition of the very severe disease aplastic anemia ("his condition is severe enough in itself -and in a comatose patient...? He simply can't fight it off") feels that a bone marrow transplant from the patient's son might temporarily boost erythropoetine levels enough to get an increase in metabolism. This temporary increase may trigger several mechanisms that if we are lucky would break the coma, or at least fight off the infection thus providing some time to deploy alternative treatments.
* The "daughter" (or daughter-in-law, in fact) which is the wife, signs a consent form allowing the doctors to get bone marrow from her son, in which she asserts that the child is indeed their son, in a mix of vain hope and denial.
I hope this helped to at least clarify our view on what happened.
Cheers!
I've gotten a few comments and questions regarding the rationale behind the medical treatment of the comatose man in the story and stuff like that, so without going into a detailed explanation of the story, I just thought I'd offer a few potential clarifications regarding the medical aspects of the story.
Lot of the comments were regarding "implausabilities" of the story, and sure -you do have to be allowed a certain degree of artistical freedom, but I assure you I have even spent lots of time bothj researching this as well as consulting two doctors and specialists regarding this topic, so it wasn't written down on a whim, but rather worked-through if I can say so myself. Anyway -here's what was intended:
Here goes...
*After many years in a coma the metabolism is severely reduced and patients very often get increased sesitivity to infections and reduced immune system.
*As a treatment to an acquired infection (unspecified) the doctors administered an antibioics treatment with chloramphenicol (noted in the booklet)
* A very, very rare side effect of this is that the patient can develop aplastic anemia. This is a condition in which the production red blood cells is severely reduced due to lack of erythropoetine in the bone marrow
* The doctor, having given up almost all hope of bringing this person back, especially with the newly worsened condition of the very severe disease aplastic anemia ("his condition is severe enough in itself -and in a comatose patient...? He simply can't fight it off") feels that a bone marrow transplant from the patient's son might temporarily boost erythropoetine levels enough to get an increase in metabolism. This temporary increase may trigger several mechanisms that if we are lucky would break the coma, or at least fight off the infection thus providing some time to deploy alternative treatments.
* The "daughter" (or daughter-in-law, in fact) which is the wife, signs a consent form allowing the doctors to get bone marrow from her son, in which she asserts that the child is indeed their son, in a mix of vain hope and denial.
I hope this helped to at least clarify our view on what happened.
Cheers!
