(May 5, 2016 at 2:17 pm)TheRocketSurgeon Wrote: I would advise you to keep your mouth shut, unfortunately, though it grates at me as well to see people make such claims. The doctors tend to downplay success rates, because people who are told "no chance" and then get a loved one back are happy, while people who are told "we can likely save him", only to have that loved one die, tend to be both outraged and litigious.
However, serious scientific study has been done on the "power of prayer", and the answer is (wait for it...) NO. Not effective.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/12082681/ns/he...sual-test/
More interestingly, the study found that people who knew they were being prayed for had a lower recovery rate than those who were in the double-blind studies. So, while their prayers aren't doing anything to help, at least they're not hurting him... because he's in a coma, and can't know they're praying for him.
I wish him all the best, as well as all your family. May the doctors' skill exceed their own hopes/expectations.
This.
Were the family members praying and talking to him in the room with him? Studies have shown that coma patients may be able to hear and respond to the voices of loved ones, which is why we encourage people to talk to them. Unless I've missed something recently, there's nothing conclusive in these studies, yet.
People recover. It happens.
And patients that are expected to live die unexpectedly. That happens too. Last year I had a patient die on the operating table before the surgery even began.
Other than that, welcome to the forums, and I hope your cousin makes a full recovery.
Dying to live, living to die.
