paulinaaa
07-04-2006, 07:41 AM
And this is why:
HARRIET, Ark., July 2 — Terry Wallis spends almost all of his waking hours in bed, listening to country-western music in a cramped, two-room bungalow down a gravel road off State Highway 263.
Related
Possible Axonal Regrowth in Late Recovery From the Minimally Conscious State (Journal of Clinical Investigation)
Mr. Wallis, 42, wears an open, curious expression and speaks in a slurred but coherent voice. He volleys a visitor's pleased-to-meet-you with, "Glad to be met," and can speak haltingly of his family's plans to light fireworks at his brother's house nearby.
For his family, each word is a miracle. For 19 years — until June 11, 2003 — Mr. Wallis lay mute and virtually unresponsive in a state of minimal consciousness, the result of a head injury suffered in a traffic accident. Since his abrupt recovery — his first word was "Mom," uttered at the sight of his mother — he has continued to improve, speaking more, remembering more.
But Mr. Wallis' return to the world, and the progress he has made, have also been a kind of miracle for scientists: an unprecedented opportunity to study, using advanced scanning technology, how the human brain can suddenly recover from such severe, long-lasting injury.
In a paper being published Monday, researchers are reporting that they have found strong evidence that Mr. Wallis's brain is healing itself by forming new neural connections since 2003.
The paper, appearing in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, includes a series of images of Mr. Wallis's brain, the first such pictures ever taken from a late-recovering patient.
The new findings raise the hope that doctors will eventually have the ability to determine which patients with severe brain damage have the best chance of recovering. They might also help settle disputes in cases like that of Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman who was removed from life support and died last year after a bitter national debate over patients' rights. Ms. Schiavo suffered more profound brain damage than Mr. Wallis and did not show signs of responsive awareness, according to neurologists who examined her.
"We read about these widely publicized cases of miraculous recovery every few years, but none of them — not one — has ever been followed up scientifically until now," said Dr. Nicholas Schiff, a neuroscientist at Weill Cornell Medical College in Manhattan and the senior author of the new imaging study.
And the article continues on (here (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/health/psychology/04coma.html?ex=1309665600&en=7b8c8e905a0e789f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss)), but that's the gist. It makes me smile that people can go in and out of this world. I can't even begin to imagine what it's like for this man to relearn everything... but the fact that he can overshadows any difficulties! The human brain is a crazy thing.
HARRIET, Ark., July 2 — Terry Wallis spends almost all of his waking hours in bed, listening to country-western music in a cramped, two-room bungalow down a gravel road off State Highway 263.
Related
Possible Axonal Regrowth in Late Recovery From the Minimally Conscious State (Journal of Clinical Investigation)
Mr. Wallis, 42, wears an open, curious expression and speaks in a slurred but coherent voice. He volleys a visitor's pleased-to-meet-you with, "Glad to be met," and can speak haltingly of his family's plans to light fireworks at his brother's house nearby.
For his family, each word is a miracle. For 19 years — until June 11, 2003 — Mr. Wallis lay mute and virtually unresponsive in a state of minimal consciousness, the result of a head injury suffered in a traffic accident. Since his abrupt recovery — his first word was "Mom," uttered at the sight of his mother — he has continued to improve, speaking more, remembering more.
But Mr. Wallis' return to the world, and the progress he has made, have also been a kind of miracle for scientists: an unprecedented opportunity to study, using advanced scanning technology, how the human brain can suddenly recover from such severe, long-lasting injury.
In a paper being published Monday, researchers are reporting that they have found strong evidence that Mr. Wallis's brain is healing itself by forming new neural connections since 2003.
The paper, appearing in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, includes a series of images of Mr. Wallis's brain, the first such pictures ever taken from a late-recovering patient.
The new findings raise the hope that doctors will eventually have the ability to determine which patients with severe brain damage have the best chance of recovering. They might also help settle disputes in cases like that of Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman who was removed from life support and died last year after a bitter national debate over patients' rights. Ms. Schiavo suffered more profound brain damage than Mr. Wallis and did not show signs of responsive awareness, according to neurologists who examined her.
"We read about these widely publicized cases of miraculous recovery every few years, but none of them — not one — has ever been followed up scientifically until now," said Dr. Nicholas Schiff, a neuroscientist at Weill Cornell Medical College in Manhattan and the senior author of the new imaging study.
And the article continues on (here (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/health/psychology/04coma.html?ex=1309665600&en=7b8c8e905a0e789f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss)), but that's the gist. It makes me smile that people can go in and out of this world. I can't even begin to imagine what it's like for this man to relearn everything... but the fact that he can overshadows any difficulties! The human brain is a crazy thing.