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Coma: Retelling the story

Celia Kitzinger

• 26 September 2014
  Talk: 5.50pm - 6.10pm
  Exhibition: 5pm - 10pm

• York Medical Society (map)

• FREE admission
  No booking required

• Wheelchair accessible
  (through the garden)

Event details

Despite being a convenient plot twist in films and TV, causing romantic complication or a focus for revenge, the reality of comas are rather different. Even in the news, the actualities of comas are overshadowed by a focus on individual awakenings or scientific breakthroughs, alongside the occasional ‘right-to-die’/’right to live’ court case.

In our research we conducted 65 in-depth interviews with family members of people in vegetative or minimally conscious states. We will use our findings in this talk as we compare cultural representations of coma with family experiences. We’ll show how the media has impacted on their initial reactions, and on the perception of comas by society as a whole. We will then describe how we worked with family members to create alternative representations of their diverse experiences and different ‘realities’ around coma.

Through the Postcard Project, and via a web resource, we have alternative representation of comas which challenge social taboos and confusions. Please visit the Postcard Project and our stall.

This is one of twelve thought-provoking short talks throughout the evening at York Medical Society on all things health-related by researchers from across eight different departments at the University of York. The talks are divided into three sessions over four hours, starting at 5pm and ending at 9.20pm, which are interspersed with refreshments and a chance to speak to the researchers, some of whom have been researching for years and some of whom are just at the start of their careers.