Belgian expert looks at other questionable comas

BRUSSELS — A doctor who discovered that a Belgian man had been wrongly diagnosed as vegetative says he is reexamining dozens of other cases.

Dr. Steven Laureys says he has discovered some degree of consciousness using state-of-the-art equipment in other patients but won’t say how many. He looks at about 50 cases a year but none are as extreme as that of Rom Houben, who was fully conscious inside a paralyzed body. Many center on the fine distinction between a vegetative state and minimal consciousness.

He said Tuesday that: “It is very difficult to tell the difference.”