Persistent Vegetative State Stories

Orlando Sentinel is just the latest Florida paper to tell the stories of PVS, a condition that with the Schiavo case has become a lightning rod for Florida politics. Everyone has a strong opinion - and notions of compassion riddle the stories no matter which side is telling. The PVS patient is very much alive in the Florida narratives. Alive both in the eyes of parents and loved ones and in a new kind of story - the story of what it "is like to be in PVS." It seems a little bit odd to me, almost macabre. This story focuses in particular on how the lives of PVS patients are animated by the incredible hopes of their families, who hope against all factual evidence that their children will snap out of a condition from which there is literally no chance of recovery:

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. - (KRT) - Today is a lavender day. Edwarda O'Bara's nightgown, the ribbons in her braided hair, the sheets on her bed, are all matching hues of lilac.

For 35 years, she has lain in the same bed, locked in the same void, but her surroundings are cheerful, a palette of pastels, an oasis of warmth. Other than her prone figure and the pill bottles nearby, there is very little in the room to suggest "hospital."

Her mother won't have it. If nurses show up in white, Kaye O'Bara hands them a colored smock. The retired teacher has banished negativity from her house, just as she has banished the words her daughter's doctor uses to describe Edwarda's condition: vegetative state.