locked-in syndrome

Definitions

A rare, severe physical disorder in which a person cannot speak and is paralyzed—with the possible exception of some voluntary eye movement—while their mental faculties remain fully intact.

uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“The locked-in syndrome is a medical condition in which, though both level and content of consciousness may be fairly normal, the patient is so severely paralyzed it may appear⟳ on superficial examination that he or she has diminished consciousness.”

“A a^([sic]) 58-year-old victim of locked-in syndrome has told the high court that a decision not to allow⟳ him to be helped to die⟳ would condemn him "to a 'life' of increasing misery".”

CEFR level