Research has shown that up to 40% of individuals with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome might actually be conscious. Dr. Stefanie Blain-Moraes and team, along with Dr. John Connolly and his students conducted a pilot case report that shows promising results in the use of propofol to perturb the brain state in a patient with the unresponsive wakefulness syndrome. The full article can be accessed at the link below.

Citation:
Blain-Moraes, S., Boshra, R., Ma, H. K., Mah, R., Ruiter, K., Avidan, M., Connolly, J., & Mashour, G. A. (2016). Normal Brain Response to Propofol in Advance of Recovery from Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10(June), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00248