aphasia ə-ˈfā-zh(ē-)ə noun
: inability to use or understand language (spoken or written) because of a brain lesion
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The word aphasia has appeared in four articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on June 9 in “Connecticut Hospitals Ordered to Allow Visitors for Patients With Disabilities” by Sheri Fink:
In March, fears rose that hospitals would run out of ventilators to help critically ill patients breathe. Mr. Severino released a bulletin putting states and hospitals on notice that protocols to decide which patients would — and would not — receive ventilators could not discriminate on the basis of disabilities, race or age, among other factors.
In April, his office resolved civil rights complaints against Alabama and Pennsylvania for ventilator triage guidelines that the office deemed discriminatory toward older patients and those with disabilities.
Mr. Severino announced a separate resolution on Tuesday that his office had reached with Hartford Hospital in Connecticut over a 73-year-old patient with Covid-19, Joan Parsons, who had difficulty speaking with medical providers because of a brain condition known as aphasia. The hospital had initially barred Ms. Parsons’ family members from being present to assist her, but it later allowed them to join her, according to one of her daughters, Susan Fandacone.
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