For professionals

Long-term disorders of consciousness (PDOC) are some of the most dramatic consequences of acquired brain injury. After surviving severe brain damage, in many cases using aggressive neurosurgical procedures, PDOC patients restore their ability to breathe independently and open their eyes spontaneously, but show little or no signs of consciousness. Two clinical entities are recognized: the non-responsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS), formerly known as the vegetative state (Jennett and Plum, 1972; Laureys et al., 2010), and the minimal conscious state (MCS) (Giacino et al., 2002). While science is steadily unravelling the neurophysiological substrates of these disorders, PDOC still confronts us with existential themes in daily practice. These can come in the form of prognostic uncertainty or conflicts between professionals and family members of patients. In this article, we provide some tentative reflections on our struggle with the concept of the mind in a damaged brain.