medicine

In what can only be described as a harrowing instance of misdiagnosis, a Belgian man presumed comatose for 23 years after a near-fatal car crash was actually conscious and paralyzed the entire time. Rom Houben, whose real state was discovered three years ago but only now made public, could be one of many falsely diagnosed coma cases, raising serious questions about those diagnosed as "vegetative" and, even more frighteningly, the process by which vegetative people are removed from life support.

A few weeks ago we wrote about the naked mole rat, a repugnant little subterranean creature possessing a unique immunity to cancer. Now it turns out that the hardy little rodents are resistant to strokes as well, a finding that may help researchers figure out better treatments for brain injuries arising from heart attacks and strokes.