London, July 14 (IANS) A blink of an eye stood between life and death of a supposedly brain-dead Briton. When doctors were about to go ahead with his family’s decision to remove his life support system, he blinked to say that he was still alive.
Richard Rudd, 43, from Kidderminster near Birmingham, never wanted to be on a life support system. But that was exactly what kept him alive since a motorcycle accident and post-surgical complications that paralysed him and damaged his brain in October 2009.
A month later, knowing his son’s wishes, Rudd’s father finally gave doctors at Annebrook Hospital in Cambridge the permission to remove the life support system.
Just as the doctors neared his bed to ‘pull the plug’, they noticed Richard blink his eye. That was the first time he had given any response. The doctors asked him if he wished to live. He blinked thrice, meaning yes.
Subsequent examinations revealed he was not brain-dead.
Richard’s condition began to improve over the last few months and he is now able to visually communicate and even move his head. He will, however, need medical care round the clock and will also be taught to communicate using his tongue and facial muscles.
‘His doctor asked him three times if he wished treatment to continue, and each time he moved his eyes to the left, the signal for ‘yes’. I’m glad that he’s been given the chance to survive and to have a say. Having to make the decision of whether your child should live or die is almost impossible,’ Rudd’s father, also named Richard, was quoted as saying by BBC One, the BBC’s general entertainment channel.
(Venkata Vemuri can be contacted at venkata.v@ians.in)
