"Locking someone in" CSI NY (spoilers)

Factual Questions
1

I’m not sure if this belongs here or in Cafe Society, but since I’m asking about the phenomenon that happend on the show I chose here.

On CSI NY last night two dead bodies and one “comatose” victim were discovered. They eventually realized the first two victims were accidents, in that the murderer was practicing his technique. The third victim was his success. Apparently he was trying to put the women into a paralyzed state - paralyzed from the eyes, down. The success could move her eyes and understand input, but she could not respond or even breathe on her own. Eventually Sinise discovered he could communticate with the vegatative girl by getting her to blink her eyes once for “no” and twice for “yes”.
It was said this murderer did this on purpose - he was a doctor, and knew that by applying the right amount of pressure to the jugular or other neck veins (and maybe nerves) he could put the women in this state.

Is this for real? What’s going on? How does it work?

2

I’m afraid I can’t answer your question but I can say that this is the exact plot from a book I read last year (typical paperback thriller stuff, picked in up in the train station I think).

Ah ha, found it on Amazon.

Locked-in Syndrome appears to be real enough. There’s a QuackWatch page on strokes caused by neck manipulation here. I’d guess that the original author tooks those two things and invented a connection to build a story around but IANAD and it may be possible for all I know.

Hope that helps.

SD

3

Thanks, SpaceDog. I didn’t know how to Google this one.