Where Would The People in a Persistent Vegetative State be Found in the Hospital?

Travis J. Smith · Nov 4, 2009

I was hoping there is a particular wing where people in persistent vegetative states were moved to. One that your average reader would associate with such conditions.

For example, bring up the neonatal intensive-care unit, and there is a good chance your reader will be able to recognize it for what it is.

I ask this because I want to be more subtle about how the science fiction concept of my story is revealed. Rather than having it read like I am taking a break from the story to fill the reader in on the concept that this story is based on, I want to strongly hint at it instead. I thought that naming the wing and providing physical description of the patient and his/her condition could suffice and let me avoid coming out and saying that the person is in a persistent vegetative state or brain dead or something else that is, more or less, equivalent.

P.S. And I ask because my failure to find out via Google has me especially curious.

Samantha's_Song · Nov 5, 2009

The Neurology wing.

CatSlave · Nov 5, 2009

You need to change the title of your post.
It is extremely offensive.

johnnysannie · Nov 5, 2009

The title of the post - and term used - is indeed very offensive.

In most hopsitals, however, anyone in a persistent vegative state isn't going to remain in hospital but will be sent to a long term care facility.

scarletpeaches · Nov 5, 2009

Um...in the canteen?

Srsly. Wow.

Travis J. Smith · Nov 5, 2009

My sincerest apologies for the title, guys. Was worried about everything not fitting into the character count restraints of the title if I were to use the term, "persistent vegetative state." My reasoning behind the title didn't go beyond that.

I didn't mean to so offend and hope you guys and gals can forgive me. Having heard it used so often, it had come to feel almost sterile, yet still a little borderline, hence my statement about not being politically correct. If I had properly understood the weight of my words, I'd not have used that particular one, you can be sure of that.

Again, I am quite sorry. Please do not think of me as some sort of insensitive prick. What I was was a misguided fool ignorant to how offensive a particular term was.

Thank those of you that still provided me with answers in light of my rather notable error in judgment.

jeseymour · Nov 5, 2009

Nursing home?

Thump · Nov 5, 2009

heh, I find the title offensive too but at the same time, my first thought was that you had a character that for some reason, had a serious compulsion to eat vegetables and you wanted to know whether the food for patients would be kept in a separate place from the general canteen

I read too much sci-fi and need to come down to Earth more often.

Maryn · Nov 5, 2009

Travis, I second those who've said it won't be a hospital but a long-term care facility, most likely in a shared room with two individuals whose conditions are similar. (Easier for the staff.) It won't be called a nursing home. (Hell, even nursing homes aren't called that much any more.)

Maryn, who's forgiven your faux pas already

Travis J. Smith · Nov 5, 2009

Would it possibly be a hospice? Back in high school, I did a paper on the Terri Schiavo situation as it was going on and I recall her being moved to a hospice not long before her eventual death.

Stew21 · Nov 5, 2009

Travis, I changed the title for you.

JulieHowe · Nov 5, 2009

Travis J. Smith said:
Would it possibly be a hospice? Back in high school, I did a paper on the Terri Schiavo situation as it was going on and I recall her being moved to a hospice not long before her eventual death.

No. A hospice is specific to end-of-life needs. If someone with AIDS, terminal cancer or any other disease expected to result in death, opts to end treatment, they can enter a hospice. I think the criteria is six months or less to live, certified by a personal doctor.

Patients in a long-term vegetative state are usually sent to nursing homes. There are new politically correct names for these facilities, such as 'long-term-care facilities', but the people I know who work in them, the social service coordinators who help families with Medicaid eligibility, and the families themselves, still call these places nursing homes.

emandem · Nov 5, 2009

Travis: If you're wanting to convey that the patient is in a serious, acute state your best bet is the ICU. Most (though not all) patients in there are hooked to ventilators, which can't always be handled on regular hospital floors. And when any patient is admitted to the ICU there is an immediate sense of seriousness associated w/ it...

Generally, there is no one hospital wing that the everyday person would associate with vegetative patients. In fact, when patients in a vegetative state are admitted to a hospital, as long as their breathing is okay, they can be sent to any floor the same as a regular patient. If they are on chronic ventilators in their nursing home or long term care facility, they can be managed on the regular hospital floor if their medical problem does not involve worsening lung status.

Travis J. Smith · Nov 5, 2009

I will just refer to this place as being a nursing home, then.

And it's good I am armed with this knowledge now, because I now plan for my main character to end up there as well and in the same state.

EDIT: But what would be the most likely cause of a persistent vegetative state? A concussion that leads to a coma that leads to a persistent vegetative state? Because I was thinking of having him fall and concuss himself "accidentally" during physical rehabilitation, and having it result in this.

jennifer75 · Nov 5, 2009

Depends.....does your "patient" have Health Insurance? My father did not and he lay in a hospital bed in a large room with other beds that contained patients in severe vegetative states...they were simply in a room at the other end of the hall of a crappy "care facility".

jennifer75 · Nov 5, 2009

Travis J. Smith said:
EDIT: But what would be the most likely cause of a persistent vegetative state?

The weeks before Cancer finally takes somebody would look a lot like a vegetative state.

Travis J. Smith · Nov 5, 2009

And would anyone know if there is a name for that set of bars that are used for physical rehab? You know, the two bars that run parallel for the person to hold onto as they learn to walk.

CatSlave · Nov 5, 2009

Stew21 said:
Travis, I changed the title for you.

Thank you.

Travis J. Smith · Nov 5, 2009

CatSlave said:
Thank you.

Yes. Thank you~!

CatSlave · Nov 5, 2009

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/coma/coma.htm

Here's a link that may be helpful.
Good luck with your research.

JulieHowe · Nov 5, 2009

jennifer75 said:
Depends.....does your "patient" have Health Insurance? My father did not and he lay in a hospital bed in a large room with other beds that contained patients in severe vegetative states...they were simply in a room at the other end of the hall of a crappy "care facility".

This is a very important point.

stormie · Nov 5, 2009

Those who are not able to be rehabilitated, are not usually kept in a hospital anymore, good insurance or not. At this other medical facility, there might be a vent wing (a wing for those on ventilators/breathing tubes), a nursing home wing (long-term care), and there might even be a short-term rehab wing (for those who can be helped and sent home eventually). You can call it a health care facility. Or extended health care facility.

MMcDonald64 · Nov 5, 2009

stormie said:
Those who are not able to be rehabilitated, are not usually kept in a hospital anymore, good insurance or not. At this other medical facility, there might be a vent wing (a wing for those on ventilators/breathing tubes), a nursing home wing (long-term care), and there might even be a short-term rehab wing (for those who can be helped and sent home eventually). You can call it a health care facility. Or extended health care facility.

I used to work in a facility that was exactly like that. It was a neuro-rehab. We had patients on ventilators (although only short term, not long term vents), patients with trachs, as well as those without. The patients ranged from not doing anything other than yawning and grinding their teeth (both common in patients with brain injuries) to those who were able to do their own trach care. (I'll always remember that patient. She was a fiesty one. Smart as could be, but had an impaired gag/swallow reflex from a bike accident, so sometimes became quite hypoxic from aspirating her own saliva. The trach allowed her to have a clear airway, and finish her rehab. She made me the sweetest card when I quit working there.)

Travis J. Smith · Nov 5, 2009

I'd like to thank everyone for their help. You have answered my question quite thoroughly. I knew I could trust AW for something like this. :Hug2:

K.Bristow · Nov 17, 2009

Ok Travis, read all the posts - and I'm stumped. What is so offensive about persistive vegetative state? Since I have personally known three friends who have ended up in this exact state, can anyone enlighten me on what is so bad about calling it that? And Travis... Nursing home was the pre 90's term. Now they have long term care facilities which are more specialized. Hope that helps too.

Where Would The People in a Persistent Vegetative State be Found in the Hospital?

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