Emerging from coma same as curing SCI?

[wonless]

I know that it doesn't happen very often, but the key here is that it does happen. I heard just the other day a woman woke up from a coma, seven years after the accident. This was interesting to me because I am seven years past my accident date. This also piqued my interest because I was wondering what the differences are (in regards to general health) between being paralyzed and in a coma, besides the obvious. I know that I'm more active than someone in a coma (barely, but I am), so it seems to reason that IF a cure is found, the body should return to somewhat normal function.

I know it's a stretch, but it's crazy shit like this that make the day bearable, maybe it will help you too?

I included a story of a young man from Oklahoma that was paralyzed for 19 years, then woke up!


http://www.spartechsoftware.com/dime...19YearComa.htm

[jhope]

i like ur style partner

[Wise Young]

Originally Posted by wonless

I know that it doesn't happen very often, but the key here is that it does happen. I heard just the other day a woman woke up from a coma, seven years after the accident. This was interesting to me because I am seven years past my accident date. This also piqued my interest because I was wondering what the differences are (in regards to general health) between being paralyzed and in a coma, besides the obvious. I know that I'm more active than someone in a coma (barely, but I am), so it seems to reason that IF a cure is found, the body should return to somewhat normal function.

I know it's a stretch, but it's crazy shit like this that make the day bearable, maybe it will help you too?

I included a story of a young man from Oklahoma that was paralyzed for 19 years, then woke up!


http://www.spartechsoftware.com/dime...19YearComa.htm

wonless,

You have made a very insightful comment. What the finding implies is that a person's brain can be inactive or at least not functioning in a normal way for a long time and still recover. Let me give two other examples:
• Oliver Sacks describes in his book Awakenings (Source) how a group of patients who suffered from a form of "sleeping sickness" in 1918 developed a rigid paralysis and near comatose state with some similarities to advanced Parkinson's disease, were immobile for decades, and awoke after being treated in 1969 with dopaminergic drugs.
• A recent study by Ostrovsky, et al. (2006) in Psychological Science (Vol. 17, 1009-1014) and colleagues (Source) reported that people who have long been blind (including those who have never used their vision before) can learn to see remarkably well. They continue to have certain little deficits, such as insensitivity to eye movements and gaze directions of faces, but appear to be able to recognize faces and other objects, see movement, and correctly perceive depth. This suggests that even though parts of the brain are not used for a long time, they do not go away complete and that the brain can restore long lost functions even after long periods of decades.

Wise.