Nelson Mandela is in critical but stable condition, the South African government said Friday, while a close friend said the anti-apartheid leader was conscious and responsive earlier this week. The government reiterated that Mandela is not in a vegetative state, contrary to recent court documents. A court paper filed June 27 concerning Mandela family graves said affidavits would be provided from his physicians to show that Mandela “is in a permanent vegetative state.” A later filing dropped that phrase. Both court filings, however, said that Mandela’s breathing was machine assisted. A close friend of Mandela’s, Denis Goldberg, told Sky News on Friday that he visited Mandela on Monday and that Mandela was conscious and responsive to what he was saying. Goldberg also quoted from something Mandela’s wife told him. “There is no sign of a general organ collapse and therefore they do not recommend switching off the machine because there’s every chance that his health will improve,” Goldberg quoted wife Graca Machel as saying. “The matter has been discussed and the decision was against.” A “persistent vegetative state” is defined as the condition of patients with severe brain damage in whom coma has progressed to a state of wakefulness without detectable awareness, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.
