Category Archives: Placement

Nov 13 2012

fMRI used to communicate with man in presumed vegetative state.

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BBC News – Vegetative patient Scott Routley says ‘I’m not in pain’.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is fascinating. And tonight, it will be on Panorama here in the UK.

fMRI has been used to further investigate just how ‘vegetative’ patients are. One man who was presumed unaware and unresponsive for twelve years has communicated with doctors to say that he’s not in pain. fMRI isn’t anything new, really, but the applications for it are numerous. This particular use is quite important to me, as my first placement was working with people in minimally conscious or vegetative state, and I always wondered whether the people could hear and understand me when I spoke to them.

In fact, I was at the hospital featuring in tonight’s programme, which, by the way, was amazing. It was where I first encountered assistive technology and highly customised wheelchairs, and all the staff were wonderful at their jobs, and to me!

So tune in tonight if you can, or watch it on the BBC iPlayer when you have time. And, if you’re feeling generous, you can even support the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability in Putney by donating, buying Christmas cards and/or sponsoring someone’s time in the computer room so they can find ways to communicate.

Aug 8 2012

Putting Touchnote to good use.

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Thanks to Samsung, this month you can send free postcards, as many as you want. I’ve even sent one to myself here in South Africa.

Touchnote | Instantly send a photo as printed postcard.

Now, if you want to do something really special with this information, then you should hear about Post Pals.

The purpose of Post Pals is to put smiles on the faces of sick children and their families. You’ll find on the site a list of children with various conditions who haven’t been as lucky as you and me. You’ll also find postal addresses for these children, so that you can send a funny joke, a beautiful postcard or even a small gift such as a colouring book.

So why not send them a postcard using Touchnote? You can’t say that you can’t afford to send each and every one of them a postcard this month!