DEAR ABBY: "Glad I Tried, Joliet, Ill." wondered if her dying mother heard her say "I love you" during the last stages of life.
Abby, she should be consoled by something all hospice volunteers learn during their excellent and professional training: Hearing is the last sense to fade. It is very likely that her mother heard her last message although her mother was unable to acknowledge it. -- JOHN R. BUTLER, ROGERS, ARK.
DEAR JOHN: Thank you for your comforting words to "Glad I Tried." Within the last year or so, I read an account of a woman who was in a coma for many years. She testified that although she could not communicate, she heard everything that was said to her during those years.
I believe that a number of studies have revealed that patients hear far more in an unconscious state than most of us ever suspected they could. That's why physicians encourage the families of trauma patients to read to them, play music for them and, above all, to talk to them.