Woman with brain injury communicates with mom after 21 years.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Joellen Huntley

A good news story was published by the Canadian Press on December 29 about a Nova Scotia woman who communicated with her mother on Christmas day, the first time in 21 years. Her mother called it a "Christmas miracle." According to Keith Doucette:

Louise Misner said her 37-year-old daughter Joellen Huntley used eye-motion cameras and software on an iPad to respond to a comment from Misner about her clothes. 

Huntley has been severely disabled since she was 15, unable to walk or talk and fed through a tube. She has always responded to family members' presence by making sounds, but was unable to communicate any thoughts. 

Huntley was thrown from a car that had swerved to avoid a dog that was running loose along a road in Centreville, N.S., on April 18, 1996. The accident claimed the life of her boyfriend and a young girl who was the sister of the driver.

The article reports that the Christmas miracle happened in this way:

The breakthrough occurred during a Christmas Day visit at the Kings Regional Rehabilitation Centre in Waterville, N.S. 

"I said 'Joellen I like your new Christmas outfit you got on,'" Misner said in a telephone interview on Friday. 

Misner said her daughter then used the technology to find an icon for a short-sleeve shirt.
"And then she said no, and went to a long-sleeve shirt because she was trying to tell me what she had on." 

Misner said her reaction was immediate to what had been a long hoped for personal communication.

The computer equipment was purchased for Joellen with the proceeds from a court settlement. The story states:

Misner said the settlement money helped the family purchase the computer equipment she is now using with the help of a speech pathologist. 

"We had to go through two or three different screens until we found the right one for her and it's called Eyegaze. Her eyes focus on the icons to answer questions." 

Misner said one of Joellen's nurses told them she is "doing really well with it." 

"I knew she just needed time for technology to catch up with her," Misner said.

In the past few years Dr. Adrian Owen, a researcher at the University of Western Ontario, has developed technology to communicate with people who are believed to be in a Persistent Vegetative State. The computer technology used by Joellen is different than the technology used by Dr. Owen but this article shows how technology is opening the window of life for people who were considered by many to be "hopeless."

The "Christmas miracle" teaches us that we should never consider a human being with disabilities as less than an equal person. It also teaches us that every human life has value.

Many people believe that euthanasia should be considered for people in Joellen's condition.