How is Stephen Hawking still alive?

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It is always a joy to sit and speak with other scientists and science enthusiasts about their passions and their breakthroughs. Sir Frank Williams of Williams Martini Racing has dedicated his life to engineering some of the most sublime automobiles ever seen, and he had a lot of very compelling ideas for upgrading my own set of wheels. - SH
 
There's a fairly boring but plausible explanation here I think.

Survival stats are obviously taken retrospectively, as you need to know how long a certain set of people took to die. So by definition they're old data.

When SH was diagnosed it would've been the 70s or something. We're a lot more advanced in Healthcare now.

Same goes for cancer survival stats. Look at testicular cancer. Poor chances post war, virtually 99 per cent survived now, even if not caught early doors.

Plus fair to say that SH has had top end care.
 
There's a fairly boring but plausible explanation here I think.

Survival stats are obviously taken retrospectively, as you need to know how long a certain set of people took to die. So by definition they're old data.

When SH was diagnosed it would've been the 70s or something. We're a lot more advanced in Healthcare now.

Same goes for cancer survival stats. Look at testicular cancer. Poor chances post war, virtually 99 per cent survived now, even if not caught early doors.

Plus fair to say that SH has had top end care.
I'd say that's been a major factor.

Also, he's working 24/7, his mind is always going 100mph, so he hasn't had time to sit and wallow in his disability. He's been on his toes (pardon the pun) for the past 50 years.
 
I'd say that's been a major factor.

Also, he's working 24/7, his mind is always going 100mph, so he hasn't had time to sit and wallow in his disability. He's been on his toes (pardon the pun) for the past 50 years.

Fair point as well. Unknown (and to some extent unmeasurable) what effect work /morale could have. So...

1. Disease that's not 100% understood. Maybe he is just unusual.

2. Original prognosis based on data collected in 50s or something. Not indicative of now.

3. Top end Healthcare plus dedicated personal care.

4. Obviously driven character.
 
There's a fairly boring but plausible explanation here I think.

Survival stats are obviously taken retrospectively, as you need to know how long a certain set of people took to die. So by definition they're old data.

When SH was diagnosed it would've been the 70s or something. We're a lot more advanced in Healthcare now.

Same goes for cancer survival stats. Look at testicular cancer. Poor chances post war, virtually 99 per cent survived now, even if not caught early doors.

Plus fair to say that SH has had top end care.

Okay mate for that to be true then we must have loads of similar cases to Hawkings just waiting to pop their clogs to update the data. Is there anyone out there who has survived this long with his condition?
 
Okay mate for that to be true then we must have loads of similar cases to Hawkings just waiting to pop their clogs to update the data. Is there anyone out there who has survived this long with his condition?
Very good point. Don't expect an answer to that on here though. SH is like....the ONLY sufferer of this in the public eye. That's the media though (I fecking hate British media with a passion) for you.......

Despite that, the man is sublime, his head is anyway.
 
Okay mate for that to be true then we must have loads of similar cases to Hawkings just waiting to pop their clogs to update the data. Is there anyone out there who has survived this long with his condition?

Doesn't work like that. Needs a properly structured study & they don't happen every day. Deaths are recorded but as far as I'm aware there's rarely any data collected outside of a dedicated study for time between diagnosis & death.

I'd bet the stats have got better but I'd also bet he's still a really unusual case.

Remember there's cases (very rare) of advanced cancers stopping in their tracks so that sort of stuff isn't impossible.
 
Doesn't work like that. Needs a properly structured study & they don't happen every day. Deaths are recorded but as far as I'm aware there's rarely any data collected outside of a dedicated study for time between diagnosis & death.

I'd bet the stats have got better but I'd also bet he's still a really unusual case.

Remember there's cases (very rare) of advanced cancers stopping in their tracks so that sort of stuff isn't impossible.

I'm sorry mate it does work like that. I agree that miracles do happen and we get impossible stuff happening all the time like you say about cancer stopping. Because we see other instances of it. Stephen Hawking is so far out there by himself that it makes it mathematically absurd. Unless of course there are loads of cases like his we don't know about.
 
I'm sorry mate it does work like that. I agree that miracles do happen and we get impossible stuff happening all the time like you say about cancer stopping. Because we see other instances of it. Stephen Hawking is so far out there by himself that it makes it mathematically absurd. Unless of course there are loads of cases like his we don't know about.

It's perfectly possible. Only cause of death is routinely recorded, not time between diagnosis & death unless looked at retrospectively in a study. Even if they did, it would assume all were diagnosed at same stage.

What if someone was vaguely ill for 10 years then finally went to docs & got a diagnosis, then died 10 years after that? Had they only been ill for the official 10 years?
 
It's perfectly possible. Only cause of death is routinely recorded, not time between diagnosis & death unless looked at retrospectively in a study. Even if they did, it would assume all were diagnosed at same stage.

What if someone was vaguely ill for 10 years then finally went to docs & got a diagnosis, then died 10 years after that? Had they only been ill for the official 10 years?

I do see where you are trying to come from. I just don't agree it's like with this condition.
 
Fuck me what a u-turn :lol:
Your word is your honour eh? Challenge me to a duel. :lol:

Take the piss all you like out of him, I’m not going lose sleep.

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It is always a joy to sit and speak with other scientists and science enthusiasts about their passions and their breakthroughs. Sir Frank Williams of Williams Martini Racing has dedicated his life to engineering some of the most sublime automobiles ever seen, and he had a lot of very compelling ideas for upgrading my own set of wheels. - SH

That’s class
 
There's a fairly boring but plausible explanation here I think.

Survival stats are obviously taken retrospectively, as you need to know how long a certain set of people took to die. So by definition they're old data.

When SH was diagnosed it would've been the 70s or something. We're a lot more advanced in Healthcare now.

Same goes for cancer survival stats. Look at testicular cancer. Poor chances post war, virtually 99 per cent survived now, even if not caught early doors.

Plus fair to say that SH has had top end care.

He has MND. There is no treatment yet.
 
Life expectancy turns on two things: the motor neurons running the diaphragm—the breathing muscles. So the common way people die is of respiratory failure. And the other thing is the deterioration of swallowing muscles, and that can lead to malnutrition and dehydration. If you don't have these two things, you could potentially live for a long time—even though you're getting worse.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stephen-hawking-als/
 
Life expectancy turns on two things: the motor neurons running the diaphragm—the breathing muscles. So the common way people die is of respiratory failure. And the other thing is the deterioration of swallowing muscles, and that can lead to malnutrition and dehydration. If you don't have these two things, you could potentially live for a long time—even though you're getting worse.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stephen-hawking-als/
THat's the article I've been trying to find.
 
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