Coma man’s amazing recovery
OT news / p2pnet: Terry Wallis was unconscious for almost 20 years after he suffered massive brain injuries in a truck crash which killed his friend.
But in 2003, after his brain apparently slowly re-connected itself, returning him from a deep coma, he started to speak again.
“Predicting the chances of recovery of consciousness and communication in patients who survive their coma but transit in a vegetative state or minimally conscious state (MCS) remains a major challenge for their medical caregivers,” says an abstract to a Journal of Clinical Investigation commentary by Steven Laureys, Mélanie Boly and Pierre Maquet.
“Very few studies have examined the slow neuronal changes underlying functional recovery of consciousness from severe chronic brain damage,” says the abstract, adding the case study, “reports an extraordinary recovery of functional verbal communication and motor function in a patient who remained in MCS for 19 years”.
Wallis has a daughter, Amber, who was 19, the same age as him when he first recovered consciousness. He said he wanted to walk again, “for her,” said a BCC story of the time, going on, “Doctors at the rehabilitation centre said Mr Wallis’ recovery might be due in part to his family taking him out at weekends and special occasions.”
Now, “Wallis still can’t walk, but his speech has steadily improved since he stunned his family by talking three years ago,” says a post on BlogsforTerri.com.
A rehabilitation chief at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center says such cases are more “like winning the lottery” than a cure, says the item.
But a, “study of the structure of his brain has revealed that the neuronal cells in relatively undamaged areas have grown important new connections over a period of years,” says The Australian.
“Scientists writing in this month’s Journal of Clinical Investigation describe the process, known as axonal regrowth, and how it might be encouraged in other MCS sufferers.
“Henning Voss and colleagues from Cornell compared the structure and function of Mr Wallis’s brain after his recovery with that of 20 healthy individuals and an MCS patient who showed no recovery after six years. The authors suggest the axonal regrowth may be the result of the brain trying to re-establish connections that would allow for the resumption of functions such as motor control and speech.”
Also See:
Journal of Clinical Investigation – Tracking the recovery of consciousness from coma, J. Clin. Invest. 116:1823-1825 (2006). doi:10.1172/JCI29172.
BCC – US man wakes from 19-year coma, July 3, 2003
BlogsforTerri.com – Doctors ‘discover’ brain repairs itself, July 3, 2006
The Australian – Brain reconnects after 19-year coma, July 5, 2006
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July 4th, 2006 at 10:08 pm
And this has what to do with p2p news and information?
July 4th, 2006 at 11:05 pm
…but the fines on his overdue library books are going to be staggering.