IS ANYBODY HOME? “A new study has found that PET scans may help answer these wrenching questions. It found that a significant number of people labeled vegetative had received an incorrect diagnosis and actually had some degree of consciousness and the potential to improve. Previous studies using electroencephalogram machines and M.R.I. scanners have also found signs of consciousness in supposedly vegetative patients. . . . Too often, he and Dr. Laureys said, patients are labeled vegetative and sent to nursing homes where no effort is made to rehabilitate them, and where emerging consciousness might not even be recognized.”