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Rdtf
CNO
Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2209
Location: BUSHville
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 Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 1:28 pm Post subject: Brain damaged firefighter recovers after 10 years... |
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http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/05/03/firefighter.speaks.ap/index.html
| Quote: | Brain damaged for 10 years, firefighter makes astounding recovery
Tuesday, May 3, 2005 Posted: 8:13 AM EDT (1213 GMT)
ORCHARD PARK, New York (AP) -- Ten years after a firefighter was left brain-damaged and mostly mute during a 1995 roof collapse, he did something that shocked his family and doctors: He perked up.
"I want to talk to my wife," Donald Herbert said out of the blue Saturday. Staff members of the nursing home where he has lived for more than seven years raced to get Linda Herbert on the telephone.
It was the first of many conversations the 44-year-old patient had with his wife, four sons and other family and friends during a 14-hour stretch, Herbert's uncle, Simon Manka said.
"How long have I been away?" Herbert asked.
"We told him almost 10 years," the uncle said. "He thought it was only three months."
Herbert was fighting a house fire December 29, 1995, when the roof collapsed, burying him under debris. After going without air for several minutes, Herbert was comatose for 2 1/2 months and has undergone therapy ever since.
News accounts in the days and years after his injury describe Herbert as blind and with little, if any, memory. Video shows him receiving physical therapy but apparently unable to communicate and with little awareness of his surroundings.
Manka declined to discuss his nephew's current condition, or whether the apparent progress was continuing. The family was seeking privacy while doctors evaluated Herbert, he said.
"He's resting comfortably," the uncle said.
As word of Herbert's progress spread, a steady stream of visitors arrived at the Father Baker Manor nursing home in this Buffalo suburb.
"He stayed up till early morning talking with his boys and catching up on what they've been doing over the last several years," firefighter Anthony Liberatore told WIVB-TV.
Herbert's sons were 14, 13, 11 and 3 when he was injured.
Staff members at the nursing facility recognized the change in Herbert, Manka said, when they heard him speaking and "making specific requests."
"The word of the day was `amazing,"' he said.
Dr. Rose Lynn Sherr of New York University Medical Center said when patients recover from brain injuries, they usually do so within two or three years.
"It's almost unheard of after 10 years," she said, "but sometimes things do happen and people suddenly improve and we don't understand why."
Manka said visitors let Herbert set the pace of the conversations and did not bring up the fire in which he was injured.
"The extent and duration of his recovery is not known at this time," Manka said. "However we can tell you he did recognize several family members and friends and did call them by name."
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Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. |
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Rdtf
CNO
Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2209
Location: BUSHville
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| Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 5:29 pm Post subject: |
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More from their local paper:
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050503/1038453.asp
| Quote: | Silent since 1995, firefighter talks
By GENE WARNER
News Staff Reporter
5/3/2005
It happened early Saturday afternoon, at about 1:30 or 2. Buffalo Firefighter Donald Herbert, sitting in a wheelchair in the hallway of his Orchard Park nursing home, looked out the window and asked where his wife, Linda, was.
Staff members couldn't have been more stunned.
For more than nine years, Herbert has suffered from a profound brain injury after being badly injured in a December 1995 fire, when a roof collapsed on him. Buried under debris and without air for six minutes, he lapsed into a coma for the next 21/2 months.
Since then, he has been unable to see, verbally recognize loved ones' voices or carry on any kind of meaningful conversation.
That all changed Saturday and early Sunday. For about 16 hours, until roughly 6 a.m. Sunday, the 43-year-old Herbert remained awake. He visited with his wife and sons, some fellow firefighters and other close friends who rushed to his room in Father Baker Manor.
He kept asking where and how his wife and four sons were. He recognized the voices of loved ones. And he was responsive.
"Donny, you feel OK?" one relative asked him.
"I feel great," he replied.
At another point, Herbert asked how long he had been "under" and was told it had been almost 10 years.
"I thought it was three months," he replied.
Relatives were thrilled - but extremely cautious - Monday, stressing that doctors have to examine Herbert, to see what this means.
"He was cognizant, able to recognize people's voices and recall who his family members and friends were," Simon F. Manka, his uncle and the family spokesman, said Monday. "But there's still room for a lot of improvement."
Family members said that after the 16-hour interaction with his loved ones, Herbert fell into an almost uninterrupted sleep, for at least the next 30 hours.
What really stunned Herbert's family and friends was the suddenness of the change.
"From what I understand, this is a sea change that is not incremental, but something that is light-switch different," said attorney Thomas H. Burton, a family friend who represented Linda Herbert in the family's personal-injury lawsuit. "What has occurred is so stunning, I don't know how you can call it anything but a miracle."
Medical experts say it's impossible to say, and way too early to tell, what the consequences are for Herbert.
Dr. Michael A. Meyer, a University at Buffalo professor of clinical neurology at Jacobs Neurological Institute, said such changes are both encouraging and rare. But they do occur.
"After that many years, it's unusual to see that dramatic a change," he said. "But we do hear about it anecdotally."
In most similar cases, Meyer said, the progress reaches a plateau at some point.
"In rare cases like this, there may be improvement over months or years," he said. "But where the plateau is, is anybody's guess."
Manka talked about how emotional it was, after all these years, to have his nephew recognize his voice and call him by name. Family members were trying to stay on an even keel.
Despite the family's caution, speculation already began to surface Monday about Herbert's possible recovery being used as a miracle in the bid to make Father Nelson Baker of Lackawanna a saint. There were unconfirmed reports that Herbert has at least one photo or other artifact of Father Baker in his room.
Monsignor Robert C. Wurtz, the local leader of the Father Baker canonization bid, said he had no information on the situation, other than what he has heard indirectly. For anything to happen, the family would have to come forward.
"I'm open to meet with them," Wurtz said.
At a brief news conference Monday at the nursing home, Manka issued this plea to the public about Herbert's condition:
"Keep praying, please wait while we have him evaluated and respect his family's privacy," he said.
As Burton said of the dramatic change, "If this is something that took place through divine intervention, I'm doing my best to help it along with a lot of prayer." |
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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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| Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 7:11 pm Post subject: |
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Rdtf wrote
| Quote: | Dr. Rose Lynn Sherr of New York University Medical Center said when patients recover from brain injuries, they usually do so within two or three years.
"It's almost unheard of after 10 years," she said, "but sometimes things do happen and people suddenly improve and we don't understand why." |
What is almost deafening by its silence, is the news media!!
In all the reporting on this case, I have yet to hear one comparison
to Terri Schiavo's case.
Apparently this man was also unable to eat on his own, which I haven't heard in any media reports.
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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rparrott21
Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Posts: 760
Location: Mckinney, Texas
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| Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 7:28 pm Post subject: |
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| It is amazing what proper care and rehabilitation might do for someone like that... |
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Rdtf
CNO
Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2209
Location: BUSHville
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| Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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| I hope I can locate info on exactly what type of brain injury he has. And if he was considered in a 'vegetative state' etc... |
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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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| Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 10:43 pm Post subject: |
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Rdtf wrote
| Quote: | | I hope I can locate info on exactly what type of brain injury he has. And if he was considered in a 'vegetative state' etc... |
Apparently, he was near PVS.
He received an experimental treatment.
| Quote: | 'Miracle' firefighter received experimental drug treatment
Thursday, May 5, 2005 Posted: 10:22 AM EDT (1422 GMT)
Former Buffalo firefighter starts speaking and performing simple tasks.
BUFFALO, New York (AP) -- Day after day, Donald Herbert sat unmoving in a wheelchair, drooling and barely aware. For the once robust firefighter, 10 minutes without oxygen had turned into nearly 10 years without seeing or speaking.
His wife refused to give up. His doctor had an idea.
Certain medications had shown promise in Dr. Jamil Ahmed's more recently brain-damaged patients, drugs normally used to treat Parkinson's disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and depression. He gave them to Herbert.
Three months later, on Saturday, something clicked in Herbert's brain. He started talking. Not only talking, his doctor said, but talking sensibly. Even making people laugh.
For the next 14 to 16 hours, until he fell into a 30-hour sleep early Sunday morning, Herbert chatted with his wife, Linda, his four sons and other family and friends, catching up on what he'd missed.
Miraculous?
"I think so," said Dr. Ellen Reilly, Herbert's attending physician at Father Baker Manor nursing home, where he has lived the past seven years.
Ahmed had told Linda Herbert to give the drugs six months. Even he was startled at their apparent effect. When Ahmed examined Herbert on Saturday, he could follow commands such as shaking his head, moving his hands and counting to 200.
"I went to see him in the nursing home and I was so amazed," Ahmed said. "I was so surprised that not only that he was talking but he was talking very sensibly. He was remembering his past, he just didn't realize how long he was asleep. ... He recognized people. His comments were very interesting and people were laughing."
Since that breakthrough, Herbert, who will turn 44 Saturday, has had infrequent moments of clarity but has not matched Saturday's progress, his wife said.
"Don has made some advances, but there is still a long way to go," she said. "As you can imagine for us, to speak to, and to be recognized by my husband, their father, after nine and a half years, was completely overwhelming."
Herbert went without oxygen for 10 minutes after being trapped under a collapsed roof while fighting a house fire in December 1995. He spent more than two months in a coma, was blind and had little, if any, memory. In the past several years, his condition had sunk to a near persistent vegetative state, Ahmed said.
Then he asked for Linda.
He was stunned that nearly a decade had passed.
"My son, Nicholas, who had just turned 4 at the time of the accident, is just thrilled to have his father call him by name, hug him and speak with him. ... My husband did not believe that it was Nick at first, because he thought Nick was still 3 years old," Linda Herbert said.
The experience has given the family, and doctors, hope.
Ahmed expects Herbert to speak more, to walk and eat. That his condition has fluctuated since Saturday was expected, he said.
The drug combination, he said, was meant to stimulate neurotransmitters, which brain cells use to communicate with one another.
Dr. Ross Zafonte, chairman of the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh, said such classes of drugs may help with a rerouting of brain circuitry. |
http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/conditions/05/05/firefighter.recovery.ap/index.html
Sadly, Michael Schiavo would never have allowed this treatment for Terri,
so who knows if it might have helped her.
BTW, has anyone seen any AUTOPSY REPORT yet???
It' been over a month, and they said the report would be made
public, and Felos' ex-wife, the massage therapist was going to
"massage" the results for us to understand.
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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Rdtf
CNO
Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2209
Location: BUSHville
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| Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 11:13 pm Post subject: |
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Shawa -
I was just wondering about that autopsy!
I don't know about you, but I don't believe in coincidences. This Firefighter woke up right now for a reason. |
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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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| Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 11:31 pm Post subject: |
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Rdtf
I agree, for everything under Heaven, there is a reason!!
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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Stevie
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 25 Aug 2004
Posts: 1451
Location: Queen Creek, Arizona
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| Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 8:23 am Post subject: |
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and I don't believe the Pope's dying while on a feeding tube was a coincidence either.
I posted the comparison to Terri S on the female msg board I lurk on.
the liberal flames started instantly! good thing I have red hair, I think that makes me flame retardant! I hadn't heard yet, at that time, whether
or not he was PVS... I heard on news yesterday that he was considered
just 1 level above that.....
I hope that judge in FL is having a good week. Maybe I should send him
a card....
_________________
Stevie
Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage
morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should
be arrested, exiled or hanged. |
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