Persistent Vegetative State

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Theresa Capwell was 33 years old and in good health when she started experiencing abdominal pain. She was diagnosed with pancreatitis (an inflammation of the pancreas) and admitted to Westchester Medical Center on September 18, 2000.

Within five days of her hospital admission, Theresa suffered acute respiratory distress and she was placed on a ventilator.

On October 3, 1996, Edith Schaffer, then 67 years old, voluntarily admitted herself to a small psychiatric hospital in Ossining, New York, for an episode of depression and anxiety. The next day, she suffered the first of a series of seizures and was sent to a nearby community hospital for a neurological consult and…