Like, you might figure they’d intuit eventually “i’m blind and deaf” but not until after shit tons of panicking and yelling into the void I imagine. What if a person never moves past that point and due to amnesia of the traumatic event simply never understands what happened to them? Is there a possibility they be euthanized?
If a person suddenly and completely lost both their sight and hearing in a terrible accident (let’s say a shot in the head that they somehow survive, for example), how would they be ‘told’ this is what happened?
Well, I know both morse and braille, guess I'm safe then. Probably gotta learn ASL next just in case.
PS I'm blind.
I want to see a blind person learn ASL.
I think they would want to see it more.
Metallica wrote a song about Johnny Got His Gun. Little ditty called "One."
Darkness imprisoning me
All that I see
Absolute horror
I cannot live
I cannot die
Trapped in myself
Body my holding cell
Landmine has taken my sight
Taken my speech
Taken my hearing
Taken my arms
Taken my legs
Taken my soul
Left me with life in hell
Chilling lyrics.
Metallica lyrics used to be among the best in metal, imo. Another anti-war song of theirs features this: "Soldier boy, made of clay, now an empty shell/21, only son, but he served us well/bred to kill, not to care, do just as we say/finished here, greetings Death, he's yours to take away" -Disposable Heroes from Master of Puppets
BACK TO THE FRONT!
A lot of their music is pretty progressive.
Master of Puppets is about drug abuse. Enter Sandman is about crib death. For Whom the Bell Tolls, anti-war. Mama Said, childhood estrangment. Unforgiven, about dangers of religious doctrine. Creeping Death, another anti-religion. Ride the Lightning, anti-death penalty. The God That Failed, cultism/Christian Science. Wasting My Hate, misplaced anger in society.
I'm sure the newer albums have a bit too, haven't listened to them as much.
It's Morse code.
He's saying "kill me". Over and over again. "Kill me"
"Don't you have some message for him?"
"He's the product of your profession, not mine."
absolute banger every time
That line is cold af
That video certainly made an impression on 12 year old me.
That point in the music video is so intense, they did such a good job mixing that all together. Really a heartbreaking concept wrapped up in an absolute banger
Arguably their best work
The double bass drum was game changing
Who is saying that?
It's a voiceover in the music video (which is from the movie based on the story?)they show the guy in his bed and the Doctor or somebody translates his Morse code to "kill me"
They may have taken some liberties with the movie. In the book, he doesn't want them to kill him. When he's finally able to communicate he taps out a message (to paraphrase) that he wants to be taken around and shown to people as a testament to what war does to people. The response is "What you ask is against regulations."
I know these lyrics, never knew the story behind them, very interesting
Metallica bought the rights to the movie just to use the clips in their video.
Lil ol' 12 year old me rocking tf out to this on guitar hero 3 not knowing the backstory is wild
Ha, I was running off to find the official video.
I went with the lyric video in case anyone was like "What? No way..."
This film traumatized me for life lmao. It’s not a very good film, but there’s something just SO creepy about it, especially the ending. Absolute nightmare fuel.
How do it end
SPOILERS: he starts begging to be euthanized and a nurse almost does but Is caught before he dies. He then faces reality that this is his life from now on.
In case you do not know, you can wrap part of your comment between double vertical lines like this: || <the spoiler> ||
Edit: fuck mixed up reddit and discord markup. It should be >! Some spoiler !<
Ah thank you I forgot the one symbol, I had the ! And it didn’t work so I went for the backup.
Basically this, though I suppose the implication is that they force this situation upon him for the rest of his natural life, though the ending scene could also be interpreted that they decide to wash their hands of him and leave him to die naturally which would have happened sooner or later if no one was there to take care of him.
SPOILERS: the nurse also jerks him off at one point in the movie
Does insurance cover that?
Not trying to be funny but that crossed my mind too
I think that’s how she realizes that his mind is intact and he’s not a vegetable if I remember correctly.
Love me a good rom-com
We read this too. It traumatized me. But I also started to learn Morse code 😂
There's a real life example of this as well, the woman is an artist in New York now. She eventually got her hearing back but yeah her bf at the time was the one to connect with her by tracing letters on her hand. They thought she was comatose.
I'm a doctor working with hearing and balance disorders.
I would hope that the vestibular organs are still intact, if not the victim would suffer from intense vertigo, be unable to sit or stand, and puke a lot. The cerebellum compensates for loss of vestibular function, even bilateral, but visual input is very helpful during this process.
Several have mentioned cochlear implants, which is an excellent idea, but the rehabilitation after surgery can take months, even years. It's not a quick fix, not a plug and play replacement for the auditory system. It takes time and training to learn to actually hear with cochlear implants, and here too visual stimulation is very helpful; reading the book you are listening too, to help you understand which strange sensations correspond to an actual word.
I find the question quite interesting.
Since you're an expert in this field - how accurate is the idea that you could relearn to play piano? I can identify tones without a reference to a very precise degree so this idea fascinates me. I've gone from hearing that voice will sound flat like it's being ran through a vocoder (with even a simulation illustrating this, voice is nearest neighbor pitch) due to the limited amount of electrodes being an analogue to cilia to one of the biggest CI companies making samples that show it's nothing more than hearing music through a simple band pass filter. What's the actual truth?
You would have to interview many persons with cochlear implants to get something approaching the truth.
From what I have been told it can sound electronic, "like a robot", especially at first. With time the brain will learn this new way of hearing, and even with one ear with perfect normal biological hearing, and one with a cochlear implant, it will be perceived as natural.
Some patients fail to appreciate music after surgery, while others can enjoy listening to music once again. I think there's a lot of individual differences. I'm not sure if being a musician or having perfect pitch makes the odds better or worse.
Comparing it to a vocoder is an excellent analogy! I've not heard that before. I think current electrodes have about 30 different electrodes, points of stimulation, but it's possible to increase resolution by stimulating two or more neighbouring electrodes, and with different stimuli with regards to amplitude, frequency or other modes of modulation.
They would probably start with sign language pressed into the hands the way that Helen Keller was taught. It would be a long process before they could teach the victim enough to have a conversation about their prognosis, but it's likely they'd figure it out on their own.
... We don't euthanize people who have brain activity.
I’d think if I was hearing person before that means I’d clearly have communication via speech and my ability to speak wouldnt go away just because I am not deaf and blind. I’d hope I’d think of a way to ask yes or no questions and have the Dr squeeze my hand once for no and twice for yes. It would probably be easier to develop a new communication model than it was with Helen Keller since I have a base of communication already established where I could at least express my wants/needs. Also most blind people aren’t 100% pitch blackness blind so I’d assume I’d be blind but maybe see shadows or a pin point or something
“Also most blind people aren’t 100% pitch blackness blind”
Fun fact. (Completely) Blind people can’t see anything, not even pitch blackness.
Man I can't even begin to conceptualize this
EDIT: guys. you're all responding saying the same thing. you can stop telling me it's like looking through your toe/elbow/back of your head/butthole/etc
EDIT2: Except the person with the shark comment. I liked that and will accept more shark facts
A weird way I heard it was, close one eye and ( obviously ) focus on what your open eye is seeing. Your closed eye isn’t perceiving blackness, but is more like it’s almost not even there.
I just did this. Makes perfect sense. I cannot see the black in the closed eye.
Fun fact: the "color" you "see" with your eyes closed is called Eigengrau
I see lots of colours when my eyes are closed, its called phosphene
I see amazing colors when my eyes are closed. It’s called psilocybin.
Unless you experience visual snow. I've never experienced Eigengrau. Just an infinite number of dancing colored flecks.
Wait other people see that too
Yup, persistent static of various intensities and types. It’s usually associated with part of the brain being hyperactive than anything to do with the eyes themselves.
That’s fascinating! I’d never thought hard about my shrinking FOV when closing one eye before. It does completely drop out of my perception
I find that this falls apart in bright areas; I see the peach-y red of the light shining through the eyelid.
It's a very neat phenomenon.
I went blind in one eye at 20. This makes so much sense and i feel like an idiot not realizing…. You just see….. nothing. Unless i close my good eye
And that's how grandma was blind in one eye and never knew, she never tried to apply for a driver's license, she went to school only two years and she never took an eye control until she was a late teen. (It was visible for other people, so probably someone guessed).
This is still a little wrong, you can never turn off your eyes. Your eyes constantly stare at the back of your eyelids.
True, but your brain can stop giving a fuck what they have to say lol
Wow. Ok that instantly made it make sense, thanks! This concept was hurting my brain but now it feels better because now it makes sense
I can "see" blackness a little in my peripheral vision. The same way you would if someone stuck a piece of black paper by the side of your head?
Edit: well shit now I've noticed it with both my eyes open. I can't unsee it. Thanks.
There are fish (sharks, among others) with organs known as ampullae of Lorenzini, that detect changes in electrical potential in the water around them. For humans, this is a sense we have no intuitive concept of, and a way of experiencing the world that has no bearing on our own. Asking a totally blind person "what they see" is like asking someone "what their electrosensory perception is like" — it is irrelevant to them, as the sense itself has no place in their experience of the world.
I have synesthesia. Sometimes I 'see' sounds. I can also 'hear' electrical equipment in standby mode e.g. a tv that is off but still plugged into the wall. I imagine electrosensory perception would be similar. It's just another way to receive sensory information. Maybe like proprioception (sense of joint location. It's how you find your nose with your eyes shut), or vibration sense, or even a breeze on your skin. The whole 5 senses idea is a bit of a simplified idea on what humans can really sense.
I’m not sure that the hearing electrical equipment on standby is the synesthesia; that may well be sound hypersensitivity
Imagine what you can see through your toes.
It’s not blackness. It’s nothing because you cannot see through your toes. Blind people cannot see through their eyes in the same way you cannot see through your toes.
Thank god we can't see through our toes though, that would just be nasty.
My gf would see inside my mouth
Sir, I just want to say Ingluorious Basterds was a masterpiece and I am a huge fan. Thank you for all that you’ve done for cinema.
Stubbing your toe would be even worse.
Yeah I just hurt myself grappling with this
I only see properly with my right eye, it's just a blur if I close it and see through my left - so I have never developed stereoscopic depth perception. This rarely affects me in daily life, except when people talk about watching "3D" movies or VR systems, and say that normal cinema / TV screens and monitors "look flat" and I have no idea what the heck they mean by that!
It's weird how some people can have sensory experiences that other people just can't, and the rest of us can't imagine what it would be like. You have to have experienced it, or it's just meaningless to you.
I have a similar experience but one that was correctable - I have a prescription in only one eye that just happens to be nearsightedness to right beyond arm's length. So I never had problems reading, and used not-3D-vision methods to visualize depth at a distance. that worked well enough that I was 16 before anyone noticed I have a prescription. When I got glasses I got stereo vision for the first time and, yes, the world has depth to it 🙃
For you, I would say that the closest equivalent is parallax - look at a scene that has objects at varying depths. (Two-eye-sighted friends, do this with one eye closed). Take a step to the left and right and see how the objects move different amounts at different distances. I'd say just by experimenting that a fairly large step, say 3 feet, gives about the same amount of depth "cue" information as seeing the same thing without moving and with stereo vision. So this can give you a sense of how "depthy" things are with stereo vision.
Then, take a picture of the scene and put it on something like a table in front of you. Now try the parallax thing. You'll notice that the objects in the picture don't shift relative to each other when you sidestep. It's pretty obvious that everything is moving together, as every object was "flattened" to the screen.
The same sensation is true with stereo vision; it doesn't require motion to see it, but everything in the image is "flattened" and looks like it's all at the depth of the picture.
Lastly, to imagine what a 3D image or movie in 3D looks like to someone with stereo vision, imagine you have the same picture as before... but when you step back and forth you do see everything move relative to each other with parallax just like it were a tiny little version of the original scene in a box. It's like a tiny diorama that can do some weird things, like extend backwards to deeper than the flat picture, or pop out in front of the image as if it were hovering, closer to you than the image is. (Now that sensation is going to be all but impossible to explain to someone who doesn't have stereo vision.)
best example/comparison for a reference that ive heard is like trying to see out of your elbow; you just cant, theres no blackness or darkness or blurriness, just straight up nothing, no sensation of sight
Lol I just commented a similar example but with toes. Yes exactly.
the way i confusingly stuck my elbow over my eyes before it hit me what you meant
If you had brain damage then your speech pattern could also be damaged but you wouldn't know because you can't hear yourself so you could be talking what you think are coherent sentences and all the other people can hear are random words or mumbles.
That would take some very specific brain damage, to create expressive aphasia. It's mostly seen in some stroke patients.
Yes but suddenly becoming blind and deaf at the same is also not common if someone has had physical damage to cause it who's to say the language side hasn't also been affected?
You are confused about how probability works. Two improbable events combined is still more improbable than either improbable event on its own.
Unless expressive aphasia coupled with deafness and blindness as a result of an explosion is more probable than deafness and blindness as a result of an explosion without expressive aphasia, your assumption that language is affected is not rational.
I feel like I know a keyboard well enough that I could put my hands on it, and have someone move my fingers around to spell out words. Then I could speak to respond. Would be a pain in the ass, but I think it would work
I have the muscle memory to type without looking but I don't think I'd be able to figure out what letter my finger was being put on if moved by someone else bc then the muscle memory part becomes useless, someone else isn't going to move my fingers the same way I would move my fingers even if they're being moved to the same relative position. If I try to visualize a keyboard there are definitely some gaps, and I don't think if I was in serious pain/scared/traumatized I'd be able to focus long enough to figure it out.
I mean, at first, sure, it's going to be bad and pretty horrible and horrifying and you'll struggle internally for a while with what's happening/has happened. But the pain/scared/trauma will eventually pass and you'll have a LOT of time to yourself to think about the situation (probably too much time). Assuming those are the only two disabilities you have and your mind is still fully functional, you're not going to be trapped in your own head forever, or probably even for very long.
Remember that at least in OP's scenario you will still be able to talk and feel, so assuming you have someone who can hear you, you will start to be able to give verbal instructions, and if someone's listening you'll get immediate feedback when someone reacts to what you say with touch, and with that you can start to teach yourself how to communicate with that person.
Before you get to keyboard-level proficiency you'll probably start with simple requests like "Tap my arm once for yes, twice for no" and start asking increasingly specific questions. And once you have information flow, you'll quickly teach yourself and your helpers how to communicate more effectively, you'll get more elaborate responses than just one or two taps that can start to give you more detailed information back and you can start to build a style of communication that works for you. And you can use that to ask for even more help communicating, like if you decided you wanted to have someone "virtual type" keyboard answers to you and you've forgotten the sensory experience associated with the keyboard layout you could get someone to teach it back to you, one letter at a time if necessary, until you've got it memorized. You can practice over and over until you've got it confidently. You've got the time.
Realistically a more helpful thing to teach yourself/get taught to you in such a situation would probably be braille. You can hook a braille display up to a computer with a keyboard and pretty soon you've got the whole electronic world at your fingertips again. I'm sure therapists in a hospital would have access to techniques and skills for re-teaching someone blind to communicate like this, even with deafness at the same time. And again you've got no distractions at all and nothing better to do than study and practice, you'll probably pick it up quite quickly.
There are little raised bumps on the F and J please so you know where your hands are. Get your fingers on those and you would know where you were
You could just trace letters into their palms, Hellen Keller didn’t learn the visual alphabet before going blind/deaf.
This was my thought. They know the alphabet and how to spell - you can trace letters, or even have them move their finger over raised letters if needed.
You could also use PC keyboard, if they are familiar with touch typing.
It’s not euthanasia if they aren’t consenting. It’s murder. 😧
It's definitely murder, but consent is not what makes something euthanasia- it's killing with the intent to relieve suffering
not just that, but the process has to be humane as well to be referred to as euthanasia
Dr: Do you consent?
Patient: mumblejumble
Dr: I did not hear a clear “No”. Did you?
Nurse: Here is the syringe Doc
We don't euthanize people who have anything
We do, though? People receive assisted suicide in many places. But obviously we don't euthanize people who don't consent and definitely not just because they are blind and deaf.
Depends on who “we” is. Canada has medical assistance in dying (MAID)
We do not euthanize people because they go blind and deaf.
Imagine being a doctor and going “Well, it would be really hard to explain to the patient what happened. So we’re just gonna kill him and avoid that hassle.”
"Socially awkward doctor" sounds like a Tim Robinson sketch
You've seen The Good Doctor, now get ready for The Bad Doctor.
Using the same actor could turn it into a Jekyll and Hyde shtick
Upon reading “The Bad Doctor,” Dr. House comes to mind immediately lmao
But only if they end up agreeing with him after a rousing monologue.
That's not what we usually do.
Source: I'm a doctor
“Usually” ? 🤨
I mean, sometimes people have really annoying families and you just don't want to deal with them.
Can’t you euthanize just the annoying people?
I’d love to hear the occasions when this does occur.
When you're about to clock off your shift and don't want to have to deal with handover
Note to self: never be dying during shift change.
Shift change is a good time to try and die because there are double the staff, black Wednesday is when you don't want to be dying. Trust me!
Have you read Johnny Got His Gun? The main premise is that the narrator has lost all of his limbs, eyes, ears, and mouth in a war accident. He's essentially trapped in his own body.
Nope, I haven't read it, and given that description, I never will.
DARKNESS IMPRISONING ME
ALL THAT I SEE
Dr. House would like a word.
I imagined this scenario like a comedy skit in my head and I found this to be absolutely hilarious. Just imagine the look of confusion and disbelief on the family's face if the doctor said that. Alternatively, imagine they agreed with the doctor. 😂
I don't think I should find it this amusing, I am going to hell 🫠🫠🫠
Canadian healthcare has entered the chat.
Oh man I needed to lol this morning. Thanks!
Also Hearing Aids and Cochlear Implants are a thing. They don’t replace hearing but if your eyes are fucked beyond repair, hearing technology can basically make sound from nothing.
Source: I am deaf with a CI and Hearing Aid (Though yes, me becoming fully blind along with being deaf would probably make me want to contemplate suicide for a while 🫠)
Right? They wouldn't even euthanize my 92yo father with late-stage Alzheimer's, as much as it would have been a kindness to do so. They're not going to euth someone just because it would be inconvenient to tell them they're blind and deaf.
Imagine being consciously trapped in your own mind for the rest of your life without any visual or auditory stimulation? That sounds like hell, I would beg to be euthanized.
No wait, I could still eat tacos. I take that back, but it would still suck A LOT
Haha! You can also do a lot more than people think at first. There's a whole community out there that has their own way of communicating and their own culture. You can live a full, taco-fueled existence.
I linked this article elsewhere too, by an author who was born Deaf and went blind later in life. It really made me rethink my perspective on this topic. https://audio.mcsweeneys.net/transcripts/against_access.html
That was really interesting, thanks for sharing!
I mean there's a lot of things you can still do with your hands or other parts.
Boy do i have a song for you
Metallica - One (Based on a book called Johnny Got His Gun)
Put that on a legal paper now then. It’s not like will be euthanized after the accident when you can’t communicate your wishes.
Someone could trace the outline of words onto their palm, Helen Keller style. Or guide their hand to a row of embossed/raised letters that they can "read" by feeling the shape of them.
There's almost certainly no policy of euthanising patients, even if they can't understand their condition. There are people on dementia or stroke wards who don't understand or retain the memory of why they're there and the standard procedure is still just to try to keep them as comfortable and calm as possible.
I kinda giggled at the idea of being deaf and blind and someone running your fingers over
U R BLND N DF
To save time
Came here to say this but just ‘google Helen Keller’ and it answers that question.
I tried Googling and all I got has a pair of sunglasses brand called "Helen Keller".
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/markets/helen-keller-sunglasses-create-stir-flna732412
Rather ironic in context
Gotta love algorithms, are you an online (window/click) shopper? Or just leave trackers on? Google is so typical
Here is the first result I got https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller
Switch your trackers off imho - escape the Google/algorithmic echo chamber
This would be a good start, tracing letters in their palm, or using their fingers to trace letters on any surface.
If the person has this accident as an adult, learning tactile sign language might take some time and effort. If the person can still speak then that half of the conversation is taken care of.
Letters on a surface seems like a way better method for beginning in this scenario. Presumably the person is old enough to read and write.
My mum actually worked on a case like this years ago. A woman had a stroke (or something similar) and when she woke up, she was suddenly blind and deaf. Not to go into too much detail, but for the first few days she was terrified, believed she was kidnapped, blindfolded & earplugged or something. All of the necessary treatment they gave her, she assumed was for the gratification of whoever had taken her.
Again, it took a while, but bit by bit they started to get through to her with calm gestures, like gently holding her hand etc. Once she was a bit calmer, they started to communicate by drawing letters on her hand. She'd say the letter out loud, and they'd either give her a tap to say 'yes', and do the next letter, or they'd 'rub it out', to say try again.
As I understand it, by the time she was leaving, she was actually pretty quick at it.
that is so terrifying.
Yes, but also weirdly it's nice to know? Like, I would obviously never wish this on myself or anyone else ever, but I do now know (as do you) that if this situation ever happens to you, you have an idea of where to start. I think that's kind of comforting in a way.
This is exactly what I figured. As long as the person could talk it wouldn’t take that long to establish a yes and no system. You could move on from there.
Magnetic 3d letters that are big enough to feel the shape?
Very important they are magnetic though
I would assume that’s so they somewhat hold their place and don’t just slide all over the table into a mixed jumble
The patient just going around flailing their hand and suddenly go into a fit because they read they are getting euthanized...this feels like a terrible funny but awkward sketch
How else will they stick to the fridge?
Awww little timmy left us a message:
asdofkj jasijjsaelf fjawen
Man that letter set had a lot of j
That as the way to teach Braille seems doable.
Part of the challenge with Helen Keller was “how does she get the concept of language”; we don’t have that challenge in this scenario since it’s a linguistically fluent adult who’s lost their senses.
Idk but that’d kinda blow
Understatement of the millennium lol
It's totally giving off "this is bogus man!" energy when Puddy on Seinfeld was told he's 100% going to hell by a Priest
Sometimes in a quiet moment, I'll imagine this scenario playing out. In my mind, it's usually waking up from sleep but when my eyes open, I can't see. Then I realize I can't hear. I start blindly thrashing about the room in a mad panic, with a feeling of overwhelming claustrophobia, fear, and despair.
If I stay on this thought too long, I can legitimately work myself almost into a panic attack. I always manage to abort before it gets to that point, but I think I could actually trigger a panic attack if I leaned into the fantasy.
I'd almost rather have locked-in syndrome where you can't move but could still hear the outside world. That would be horrible as well obviously but somehow the thought of being completely sensorily detached from the outside world is utterly horrifying to me.
Read “Johnny Got His Gun” by Dalton Trumbo, it’s basically the plot.
Joe Bonham, a young American soldier serving in World War I, awakens in a hospital bed after being caught in the blast of an exploding artillery shell. He gradually realizes that he has lost his arms, legs, and all of his face (including his eyes, ears, nose, teeth, and tongue), but that his mind functions perfectly, leaving him a prisoner in his own body.
They can still recognize letters by touch, right?
Yep. Also the ‘one tap is yes, two taps is no’ method would work.
how would you translate that over to them though if they couldn’t see/hear you saying it? because you’d still need to use the letters
The way I did with an ex-girlfriend.
We used to tap Morse code to each other to be discreet. Stole the idea from Dune.
Make sure to learn morse code now, before you really need it.
Right? You’re kinda fucked if you didn’t plan ahead
what the hell makes you think they would euthanize them? absolutely not.
I’d hope I’d be euthanized if it happened to me
I would too but I don't think that's a decision a doctor can make on someone else's behalf. In fact in most countries it's a decision neither I nor my doctor can make
At least with me they could use Morse code, if anyone at the hospital knows it... and my first response would be , let me say good bye to my family and then kill me, harvest everything you can, and compost the rest.
Your might enjoy the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly .
Well, depending on HOW the sense of hearing was damaged (is the brain center for hearing damaged or does it still work) and what is left of the sensory organ (the ear and its inner parts) a cochlea-implant might be a way to restore some hearing.
My cousin Jackie Coker was the first woman to graduate from the California School For The Blind. She was born with hearing and sight but lost them because of an operation. She told me she panicked after waking up until she smelled her mother's perfume.
I would tell whoever is touching me to just end me. I play music and love art. If I couldn't hear, I could still appreciate beauty. If I couldn't see, I could still hear beautiful things. If I can't do either, I don't want to live.
If I went blind and deaf suddenly I could communicate out with a keyboard.
Input is limited to other senses. Touch is likely the best one, and eventually would be pretty adequate as a way to receive information as neural connections grew to support it.
If i became deaf and blind I would communicate through spoken language. I'd rather speak than have to type everything.
You could also communicate out with, you know, your mouth.
Not being able to hear yourself often leads to quite slurred speech, especially over longer periods of time. You can notice this when you hear some deaf/hard of hearing people speak, they don't quite move their mouth enough to complete the sound so it all sounds like vowels
Read “Johnny Got His Gun” or watch the movie. Maybe play “One” by Metallica a few times, you’ll get the idea.
Came here for this.
Jesus, you have just unlocked a new nightmare.
What country are you from that you would think that people would be euthanized for that?
There's a really good Anti-War book featuring such a scenario iirc - Johnny's Got His Gun.
Bro thinks people get euthanized like pets…
Only thing I can think of is giving the person a crayon (bad idea to give them a pen or pencil) and let them write. Or give them a keyboard if they're a nerd like me (I don't have letters on my keyboard, so it's definitely possible to use it blind).
And to reply, you grab their hand and write the response using their hand, in big blocky letters. Hopefully they can tell what you're making them write.
Well that's a brand new existencial nightmare I'll be having tonight. But i feel I've heard this somewhere before. Great song though.
This post gave me anxiety 😳
Umm euthanize? No absolutely not. If the person can still talk then the person could probably ask and start with yes or no question with tapping on either shoulder/hand. If the person can write same thing. If the person is too confused, then writing into their hand, or having them trace big letters that stand out will help. Of course people are going to be confused and scared, but that’s no reason to kill them.
Thanks! New fear unlocked
Alexa play One by Metallica
Read the book Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. It tells you how, and then some. The song "One" by Metallica is based on that book.
My cousin went blind and deaf from the measles. He was 7 and nobody knew what was happening because he lapsed in and out of consciousness. He just “woke up” blind and deaf one day.
Since he was 7 he could read a bit, which was really helpful. Also, he could still speak. At first he worked with taps, then he learned Braille.
I’d want to be euthanized if I lost my sight and hearing. Ain’t tryna be like Helen Keller
You need to watch Johnny Got His Gun
If you're really interested in this, then read "Johnny Got His Gun"
Depends on the country. Theres countries that do assisted suicide for severe mental health issues.
There was a RadioLab episode about a similar situation but I heard it many, many years ago and have no idea what it was called.
There’s a book called Johnny got his Gun where the character experiences this. His nurse writes on his chest in normal English and he is able to understand
I think Metallica’s song One kinda covers this.
Omg. I am a Combat vet with PTSD and I learned to fight blindfolded...... that wouldn't be a good day.
If I had lost my sense of sight and hearing I'd want to die. I can't imagine a worse existence. Having sensations of warmth and cold, taste and smell but trapped in complete silent blackness. I'd welcome death at that point
Well in this scenario they aren't born blind and deaf so they can speak and understand language. There's no reason they wouldn't be able to feel letters to be told things, then eventually learn braille to read. You'd also still know how to write although your handwriting would suffer, obviously.
There are therapists who work with the deaf/blind community. They work their way up to systems of communication like braille.
For someone who became deaf and blind instantly, they could presumably talk and write to ask for their needs to be met. If they say they are hungry, place food in their hand. If they say they need the restroom, guide them to the toilet.
To communicate with them you could start by spelling words with 3D letters.
Then, place their hand over one letter at a time.
You could hand them a familiar object like a ball. Then, place their hands on letters b-a-l-l.
You could work up to teaching them braille.
There are several ways to teach people new ways to communicate. Especially, if they are in a familiar environment with trusted helpers.
Speech pathologists, occupational therapists, and sped staff have lots of experience working with people who require very high levels of support like this.
The beginning would be rough and the progress initially would be slow.
Therapy dogs could help a great deal.
Wow. This question just stressed me the fuck out.
This actually happened. A woman was hit by a truck and lost her vision and hearing. Her long and hard road to "recovery" was documented in this extraordinary podcast: Finding Emilie
The person can still talk, right? If they have the presence of mind to think of it, they can learn a lot of information by asking yes or no questions. Just say "Tap me once for yes, twice for no" and then go to town.
"Was I in an accident?"
2 taps
"Did I get sick"?
2 taps
"Was I attacked?"
1 tap
"Was I stabbed?"
2 taps
"Was I shot"?
1 tap
"Was anyone else hurt?"
2 taps
"Did they get the bastard who shot me?"
1 tap
...etc
Eventually they would need to learn braille, but this method would work to start.
When I was fifteen, we read this in English class.
Johnny Got His Gun was an anti-war novel written just before WWII, set in WWI about the horrors of war. It's is a stream of consciousness novel from the perspective of a young soldier who has had his arms, legs, ears, eyes, and face blown off from an exploding shell, but is still alive. (There are things we can say about wanting to stay out of WWII in specific, and how he suspended publication after the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, and stuff like that, but it's not relevant to this question.)
Toward the end of the novel, a nurse draws out M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S on his chest. He starts raising up his head and dropping it in a pattern, which is Morse Code, which he fortunately knows. And they bring someone in to tap on his chest in Morse Code to communicate.
Ever since then, learning Morse Code has been on my to-do list, just in case I ever get my eyes and ears blown off, but I haven't gotten around to in in the past thirty five years. I know a couple letters, but not enough to talk to folks.