Comatose

Pittsburgh Steelers founder and chairman Art Rooney Sr., remained in a coma yesterday, his condition described as "very grave. " The 87-year-old Rooney was admitted to Mercy Hospital last Wednesday after becoming dizzy at the team's offices at Three Rivers Stadium. "Right now, more than my situation, I'm saddened . . . and I'm just saying my prayers for him," said veteran nose tackle Gary Dunn, who was cut from the team yesterday. "He's been a big influence on my life, and I'm just very thankful that I've had the opportunity to know him. " Rooney's doctor, cardiologist Theodore Gelet, has said that even if Rooney survives the setback, he likely will be totally paralyzed on his right side and unable to speak.

A Quaker prayer service will be held tomorrow for noted gay author Robert Drake, who remains unconscious two months after he was severely beaten in Ireland. Drake was flown from Ireland to Newark, N.J., on Sunday and taken by ambulance to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. His companion of six years, Dr. E. Scott Pretorius, is the hospital's chief resident in radiology. Drake is a Quaker and the prayer service is scheduled for noon at the Friends Center at 15th and Cherry streets.

Mark Scarfo, the youngest son of convicted mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, has been discharged from Hahnemann University Hospital, three months after he tried to commit suicide by hanging himself. A spokeswoman for Hahnemann said that Scarfo, 17, who has been comatose since the Nov. 1 accident, left yesterday in basically the same condition as when he was admitted. He initially was taken to Atlantic City Medical Center and was transferred three days later to Hahnemann.

Halfway through the conference I began to wonder what I would feel if I was Ryan Amerman's mother. If my unconscious child had been picked up every day for eight years and taken to a school for the mentally disabled. If my child had been in a persistent vegetative state, wholly unable to experience life, and yet had been taken on field trips, had come home with a Mother's Day card or with a report that he had bowled 103. If I had been told repeatedly that this child was "improving.

The letter is from a bureaucrat, informing a comatose man that his application to become a U.S. citizen is denied: "Due to your injury, you are physically unable to take the oath of allegiance or otherwise manifest your assent to it, and it does not appear that you will be able to do so at any time in the near future. " Chong Ho Kwak, a Korean grocer who ran a little market in Harrisburg, had taken every step required to become a naturalized citizen. The only thing he needed to do was swear an oath of allegiance.

Ziya Damdandusen, 23, a Turkish-born student who spent more than two months in a coma at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, was discharged Sunday despite showing few signs of recovery. His parents took him back to Turkey. Damdandusen was taken to the hospital Sept. 18 with severe brain injuries caused when a speeding car crashed into his bicycle in a hit-and-run accident in West Philadelphia. Doctors had said that his condition was hopeless, that he would never recover from a "persistent vegetative state.

Computer chip could protect comatose patients A tiny computer chip that can be implanted in the body and scanned for personal and medical information is awaiting approval by the Food and Drug Administration. The VeriChip is similar to technology has been used on millions of dogs and cats as a way to identify the pets if they are lost or stolen. Its maker says the chip can provide instant access to a comatose patient's medical records or warn of allergies to any medications.

Phineas Gage accidentally drove a pole through his head - and survived. Gage sustained one of the world's most famous traumatic brain injuries. Today, 1.4 million Americans suffer one every year, with effects ranging from mild to severe. Of them, 1.1 million are treated and released from an emergency department, 235,000 are hospitalized, and 50,000 die. Gage's was an extraordinary case, with incredibly mild repercussions given the extent of his injury. But the normal prognosis for patients with severe head injuries is not so hopeful.

There's a gruesome sidelight to modern medicine's ability to save people whose ailments would have been fatal a generation ago. Thousands of Americans survive in a permanent, vegetative state that seems somewhere between human life and death. It's common for people to say they'd rather die than live like vegetables, but they seldom have the foresight to delegate that decision- making power or to write a "living will. " Thus, the fate of comatose people tends to be decided by their families in consultation with doctors.

"While You Were Sleeping" is a sentimental successor to "Sleepless In Seattle," and so much like the popular Nora Ephron picture that a more suitable title would have been "Comatose in Chicago. " Sandra Bullock stars as Lucy, a transit authority toll taker who develops a huge crush on the handsome lawyer (Peter Gallagher) who passes her booth each day. Lucy invents an elaborate fantasy, imagining he is her soulmate, her ideal man - the person who will rescue her from her lonely, humdrum life in a cramped apartment with her only companion, a cat. She finally meets Prince Charming when muggers push him from the subway platform onto the rails below.

Phineas Gage accidentally drove a pole through his head - and survived. Gage sustained one of the world's most famous traumatic brain injuries. Today, 1.4 million Americans suffer one every year, with effects ranging from mild to severe. Of them, 1.1 million are treated and released from an emergency department, 235,000 are hospitalized, and 50,000 die. Gage's was an extraordinary case, with incredibly mild repercussions given the extent of his injury. But the normal prognosis for patients with severe head injuries is not so hopeful.

Donovan McNabb likes to say it's not about the numbers. He likes to say it's about the wins and the losses. After two games of this Eagles season, the numbers are bad, the record is worse, and there are countless reasons for head coach Andy Reid, his players, and the fan base to be deeply concerned. The Eagles' offense played poorly in the season opener against the Green Bay Packers but could not even match that effort last night in losing, 20-12, to the Washington Redskins in their home opener at Lincoln Financial Field.

One positive sign out of Notre Dame's practices this week has been linebacker Maurice Crum Jr.'s bloody nose. "I think the last couple practices on the defensive side have been pretty physical," safety Tom Zbikowski said. "I know Mo had a bloody nose trying to hit people. It's been one of the more physical weeks since I've been here. " The Irish are already battle-scarred heading into tomorrow's hyped meeting at No. 14 Penn State. After losing their opener to Georgia Tech, 33-3, the Irish are hoping to deliver the beating and avoid taking another severe lump this weekend.

It's a brand name in Spain and in film circles the world over: Almod?var, as in Pedro Almod?var, the Oscar-winning, Cannes-winning, winningly outrageous Spanish writer-director whose wild forays into sexual ambiguity, soap-opera emotionalism, womanhood, motherhood, gay love, straight love, the Catholic Church and Day-Glo color schemes have resulted in a body of work that is full of life - in all its funny, sad, beautiful forms. Volver, which reunites Almod?var regulars Carmen Maura and Penelope Cruz, had its North American premiere last week at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Mexican flyweight Ruben Contreras, 32, was in critical condition in a medically induced coma yesterday, a day after undergoing surgery to relieve pressure from bleeding on his brain. Contreras suffered a seizure Saturday night, shortly after he stopped fighting in the sixth round of a scheduled eight-round bout against Brian Viloria in Los Angeles. David Duarte, a trauma surgeon at California Medical Center, said the surgery was performed quickly enough to avoid permanent damage.

Tim Myers recalls the events of that night in mid-October with the kind of clarity that comes only to a father whose child is in grave danger. "It was the middle of the night," Myers said yesterday from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where his 6-year-old son, Clayton, lies in a coma induced by doctors. "Clayton was in bed with us. We woke up and saw that his eyes were open, but he didn't respond to us. He was drooling. " His son, it turned out, was suffering from seizures so severe that doctors had to put him on a ventilator and induce the coma.

A Florida judge has ruled for a second time that the feeding tube of Terri Schindler-Schiavo can be removed, which would kill the former Montgomery County woman who has been comatose for nearly 13 years. Yesterday's decision by Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George W. Greer to have the tube taken out on Jan. 3 at 3 p.m. is a victory for her husband, Michael Schiavo, who has sought for 4 1/2 years to end the feeding that keeps his wife alive. Schindler-Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have fought equally hard to maintain her only source of nutrition.

Computer chip could protect comatose patients A tiny computer chip that can be implanted in the body and scanned for personal and medical information is awaiting approval by the Food and Drug Administration. The VeriChip is similar to technology has been used on millions of dogs and cats as a way to identify the pets if they are lost or stolen. Its maker says the chip can provide instant access to a comatose patient's medical records or warn of allergies to any medications.

Megan Hamlin, one of two Bucks County girls run over by a sport-utility vehicle June 20 on a Florida beach, was returned to the Philadelphia area yesterday, still comatose, for treatment at the Moss Rehabilitation Hospital. Mark Hamlin of Chalfont, father of the injured 17-year-old, checked her into the hospital at 1 p.m., according to Laura Gallagher, a spokeswoman for the Einstein Healthcare Network. She was listed in critical condition at the facility's Drucker Brain Injury Center last night.

Jessica Rowen remembers little about the day her vacation turned into a nightmare. The Bucks County teen recalls laying on a Florida beach with her friend Megan Hamlin, listening to music on their portable CD players. The next thing she remembers is waking up in a Jacksonville hospital intensive care unit, surrounded by relatives and nurses. Today, the 16-year-old is back at her Dublin home, enjoying visits from friends and family and getting settled in the new house her family moved into before the accident.