Minimally conscious state

A minimally conscious state (MCS) is a condition distinct from coma or the vegetative state, in which a patient exhibits deliberate, or cognitively mediated, behavior often enough, or consistently enough, for clinicians to be able to distinguish it from entirely unconscious, reflexive responses.

Patients with severe brain damage may progress through stages of unconsciousness with eyes closed (coma), to unconsciousness with eyes open (vegetative state), to a stage of "inconsistent, erratic responsiveness" (minimally conscious state).

It is not known whether patients in MCS can process emotion. MCS is thought to have a more favorable outcome than persistent vegetative state.

Doctors in the USA recently succeeded in bringing a man who had been under MCS for six years back to consciusness by planting electrodes deep inside his brain. If the success can be more widely replicated, it offers hope for many of the up to 300,000 MCS sufferers in the USA today.

Notable MCS patients

 * Terry Wallis
 * Gary Dockery
 * Dorothy Crater