Distant Healing Network (DHN)/ Semicomatose Patients

I put a healing request for brother-in-law on the DHN website. When your near ones are lying at the hospital, you want to do everything possible to help ease their pain. I get mails from some folks who are part of the DHN network. They assure me that the prayers and healings have begun for him. Prayers and alternate healing methods are not harmful in any way. It's just a way to have many people who believe in the power of prayers to pray for the person who's suffering. Their standard request goes this way...Please note:'When help is requested, please understand that all those associated with the Distant Healing Network strongly believe and advocate that regular medical help and advice from the subject's doctor(s) should continue to be sought and followed'. That's good. As an Organization, they are not promoting any miracle cures etc. They want people to continue with their medical treatment while all of the prayers happen for them.

 I am a strong believer in God and prayers. If this helps his life to be less painful, I'd be happy. I am not expecting any miracles to happen in a day. I am just using the medium of prayers to let God know that this person needs his help desperately. Maybe god  allots his attention by giving priority to cases based on the total number of people praying for a particular person? LOL!

Well..in such situations, the power of prayer and positive thoughts cannot be overruled. I think I should put a request for those mentally sick people who also  come to visit him with thoughts that he would never recover and that he'd be in coma forever. I wonder as to why these people even bother to come to the hospital. When a person's sick, he needs positive people around him. He needs people who are firm believers that he's going to be fine and that he'd need their strength and support, while on his road to recovery. These are the kind of people who need to surround those who are lying in the hospital. The negative folks need to just stay at home and nurse their own illnesses and insecurities related to their sick thoughts and fake sympathies. I'll pray for their soul as well. They need more help than my brother in law.

I was reading through articles related to care of 'semi comatose' patients. There are many interesting articles on the net for this topic. This one below gives a clear idea on how to handle such patients.

They should have included the line, "keep negative and irritating visitors outside the room'. Sigh!!! That got omitted.

I have taken some excerpts from one of the articles that I read in recent times

http://www.comacommunication.com/faq.htm

Can a person in coma hear and see?

Coma Communication: Always assume the person in coma can hear. Hearing is usually the last sensory faculty to deteriorate when people are dying. Occasionally someone hard of hearing in their normal state can hear better in their altered consciousness. ~ If you want to speak about sensitive matters, assume your patient can hear, please, leave the room and close the door behind you. 

When the coma person’s eyes are open they may well be able to see. Many patients track movements, focus on objects, and make eye contact. They may not do these things all the time, just as you and I don’t. 

Speak to the person, sing to the person, encourage them to see what they are seeing especially if their eyes are open or eyelids flutter. Encourage them to hear what they are hearing, and attempt to talk, especially if they are making sounds or if you notice mouth or throat movements. Listen and look for recurring nonverbal signals that indicate positive feedback, and which could be used to set up a binary (yes/no) communication system. 

Sensitive outside prompting and encouragement can be very beneficial to move their awareness process along. So they can complete inner work and potentially come further out of coma momentarily or perhaps longer. You will get subtle positive feedback, such as changes in breathing rate or depth, eyelid fluttering, etc., if you are on the right path.

You won’t disrupt patients if you learn to recognize negative feedback and do not persist beyond three tries at any one communication attempt. Negative feedback is no change in their communication patterns following your interventions.

What may appear as a physical pain signal from the outside could be a different experience on the inside. For instance, tears may be caused by physical pain, an emotional reaction, or spiritual impasse. The tears could be for hurt, joy, anger, frustration, feeling touched, or loved. Please don’t make assumptions but rather support the person by feeding them sensory grounded information. For instance rather than say, "You are crying; you must be hurting." Say, "There is water coming from your eyes." This "fill in the blank" type statement will help the patient with their awareness and at the same time allow them to fill in their own content and gain more awareness about themselves.

Being overly quiet is not necessarily helpful. It is usually best to speak in your normal voice so patients are sure to hear you, and so you remain as comfortable as possible. That said, follow the mood or atmosphere of the person in coma. On one hand the feeling atmosphere may be quiet and directed toward inner body feelings. On the other hand some exercises require more than one person and may involve a lot of affirmation, encouragement, and even cheer leading at times. ~ If there are too many “noisy” things in the room, like television or radio, it may be helpful to turn them off. Then again, music that elicits positive responses from patients can be beneficial.

So that's the end of my musing on this topic..Until my next

"Prayer is not getting man's will done in heaven, but getting God's will done on earth. It is not overcoming God's reluctance but laying hold of God's willingness."

Richard C. Trench

Semicomatose- Relating to a state in which a patient is unresponsive unless shaken