Wise Young
05-06-2005, 07:31 PM
This topic is being discussed in the political forum but I thought that this might be a good subject for the cure forum as well.
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=47037
Brain-Damaged Fireman's Recovery a Mystery
By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, May 5 (HealthDay News) -- No one really knows why it happened -- why Donald Herbert suddenly started speaking and responding to people a decade after a brain injury left him mostly unresponsive and living in a nursing home.
Herbert, a 43-year-old firefighter from Buffalo, N.Y., was knocked unconscious by debris in a burning building in 1995, leaving him blind and mostly mute until Saturday, when he suddenly asked for his wife.
"How long have I been away?" the Associated Press quoted Herbert as asking.
Such apparent recoveries have happened before, but rarely and usually not after such a long interval. About two years ago, an Arkansas mechanic, the victim of a car accident who had not talked in 19 years, suddenly started speaking. And a Tennessee policeman broke an eight-year silence caused by a shooting mishap. That recovery lasted only about 18 hours.
In fact, Herbert's wife, Linda Herbert, said Wednesday that her husband has had moments of clarity in recent days, but has not matched Saturday's breakthrough, the AP reported.
"He has had several infrequent moments of lucidity, which has given us much hope for further recovery," Linda Herbert said at a news conference at Erie County Medical Center. "Although the subsequent periods of lucidity were not of the quality of Saturday, they were still of a degree which was considerably higher than before Saturday."
Herbert appeared to have suffered oxygen deprivation and, according to The New York Times, about 15 percent of people who suffer brain damage from oxygen deprivation do recover some awareness within the first few months. About half of the people who suffer traumatic brain injuries recover in the first year. After that, the chances of recovery are slim.
more...
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=47037
Brain-Damaged Fireman's Recovery a Mystery
By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, May 5 (HealthDay News) -- No one really knows why it happened -- why Donald Herbert suddenly started speaking and responding to people a decade after a brain injury left him mostly unresponsive and living in a nursing home.
Herbert, a 43-year-old firefighter from Buffalo, N.Y., was knocked unconscious by debris in a burning building in 1995, leaving him blind and mostly mute until Saturday, when he suddenly asked for his wife.
"How long have I been away?" the Associated Press quoted Herbert as asking.
Such apparent recoveries have happened before, but rarely and usually not after such a long interval. About two years ago, an Arkansas mechanic, the victim of a car accident who had not talked in 19 years, suddenly started speaking. And a Tennessee policeman broke an eight-year silence caused by a shooting mishap. That recovery lasted only about 18 hours.
In fact, Herbert's wife, Linda Herbert, said Wednesday that her husband has had moments of clarity in recent days, but has not matched Saturday's breakthrough, the AP reported.
"He has had several infrequent moments of lucidity, which has given us much hope for further recovery," Linda Herbert said at a news conference at Erie County Medical Center. "Although the subsequent periods of lucidity were not of the quality of Saturday, they were still of a degree which was considerably higher than before Saturday."
Herbert appeared to have suffered oxygen deprivation and, according to The New York Times, about 15 percent of people who suffer brain damage from oxygen deprivation do recover some awareness within the first few months. About half of the people who suffer traumatic brain injuries recover in the first year. After that, the chances of recovery are slim.
more...