Welcome back to day 2 of the Book Club Bash sponsorned by Novel Publicity. Today Gladiator's Pen is hosting BLUFF author, Lenore Skomal. She's asking an interesting question to readers today. Don't forget to enter the contest below for a chance to win some great prizes and leave a lil comment love. Now welcome Lenore Skomal to the ludis....
Can those in a coma hear
us? By Lenore Skomal
It’s
the pivotal question that launched BLUFF. Not a revolutionary or new question,
but one that persists and is debated in the medical community, for one, and the
world at large.
In
doing the research for BLUFF, I spoke to many physicians and caregivers, and my
straw poll indicates the group was evenly divided. While most doctors acquiesce
that they don’t rightly know, their druthers list toward the “no, not likely.”
While
my mother wasn’t in a coma, technically, she was in a deep, morphine sleep
toward the end of her life, thanks to a losing battle with bone cancer. She
drifted in and out of long periods of consciousness, and it had me wondering,
perhaps obsessively so, about what exactly she was aware of. Her primary care
doctors were sensitive about not talking about her condition in front of her,
even when she was snoring. I appreciate this more than they will ever know.
There was a level of respect that I bow to.
After
I wrote BLUFF, an in-law of mine was admitted to the hospital and kept in a
medical coma for a month. When I asked him about it later, he wasn’t
comfortable discussing it, other than to say, “I don’t remember a thing.”
Others
who have come out of comas have had similar responses. But they are not the
norm. Actually, there are those documented cases of coma patients who do
remember, and can even recall the offhand words of a careless doctor or
insensitive nurse telling loved ones that they’ll never come out of it. Those
cases are what keep the right to life movement fueled, especially in desperate
cases where there is no hope. Oddly, however, there are no numbers to prove the
case either way.
By
creating this dilemma for my protagonist, I wanted to push the envelope and explore
not just the idea that a comatose patient could hear, but much more. I wanted
to know what it might be like to be trapped in one’s body, with no visible
means of communication. And not just be trapped, but forced to face the
decisions you’ve made and live with those outcomes while not being able to
defend or explain yourself. My protagonist, Jude Black, finds herself in that
position. And as she lies there, immobile, some strange things happen. One of
them is that she actually finds herself communicating and developing a friendship
with someone she loathed in her waking life.
As
with most of my writing, this unusual outcome underscores something much larger
and pervasive—a human frailty—basically, our tendency to judge one another.
When everything is stripped away—social setting, class-consciousness, petty
differences, toxic gossip—sometimes that’s enough to truly see someone. And
find a commonality that can create a relationship, a bond. I played with this
theme in the book, and I think you will agree that the unlikely friendship that
transpires between Jude and Mary Shannon is not just poignant; it’s heartfelt
and true.
To
be certain, the question about just what someone in a coma can experience won’t
be answered definitively by BLUFF or by me, that is unless I find myself in a
hospital bed one day in a persistent vegetative state. And if that happens my
friends, you can rest assured—I will get back to you about it.
About BLUFF
About the Author
Lenore Skomal is the author of the recently released novel
Bluff. As an author, Lenore wants you to eat her books. She wants you to chew
them in your teeth, savor them on your tongue, breathe them in, and feel her
words in your skin. Her passionate desire is to touch your heart, inspire you,
and luxuriate in the world of the written word. Winner of multiple awards for
blogging, literature, biography and humor, Lenore Skomal’s catalogue spans many
genres. With 30 years of writing experience, over 17 books published and a
daily blog, the consistent themes in her work are the big issues the human
experience and adding depth and voice to the intricacies involved in living a
multi-dimensional existence. www.LenoreSkomal.com
