On Friday, the NBC Nightly News took the time to devote an entire story to the case of a Michigan woman who survived a near-death experience which illustrates that doctors can sometimes make the wrong diagnosis and give up on comatose patients too soon.
Anchor Lester Holt recalled description of the surprise recovery as a "miracle" as he set up the report: "We're back now with what a family is calling a medical miracle -- a woman considered almost brain dead who recovers after the gut-wrenching decision to remove her life support."
In a pre-recorded piece, correspondent Kristen Dahlgren then recounted for viewers that Michele De Leeuw was hospitalized after having a heart attack and, at one point, was diagnosed as nearly brain dead with only five percent brain function.
Her husband, Karl, was seen explaining how difficult it was for him to decide to have her life support removed by doctors who advised that she would never recover, but then she woke up and began talking a few days after life support was disconnected, and has improved substantially since then.
