Her parents pleaded to the court for taking the plugs off so that Karen could die. The court agreed. But Karen did not die. Of the trilogy of disease, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment, prognosis is the most difficult to evaluate. The accurate prediction of things to come is often most baffling, perplexing, and problematic.
Caution is essential.
The less said the better. Remember that we are endowed with two eyes and two ears but with only one tongue. This is but natural, for prognosis as a subject has been least touched upon in medical literature. Depraesagienda vita et morte aegrotantium by Prospero Alpino, published in 1601. All told, medical prognostication is more of an art than a science.