Monday, October 29, 2007

Some patients' bad memories haunt Oregon State Hospital's history

Betty Jackson remembers waking up from coma therapy in a fog of pain and confusion.

In 1953, Oregon State Hospital doctors prescribed insulin coma therapy for Jackson, then in her early 20s.

The treatment consisted of daily insulin injections that caused her blood sugar to plummet and rendered her temporarily comatose. Doctors and nurses brought her back to consciousness with feedings of glucose.

More than 50 years later, Jackson, 76, describes the long-discredited therapy as cruel and degrading.

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