General Chat

Fireman's recovery stuns doctors. US doctors are trying to find out why a severely brain-damaged man has suddenly started to speak after nearly 10 years. Donald Herbert, 43, a firefighter, was badly injured in a house fire in 1995 and was deprived of oxygen for several minutes before being rescued. He was in a coma for more than two months, and since then he has been blind, barely able to speak and unable to recognise family and friends. But at the weekend he spoke lucidly with his wife and family for 14 hours. He has since maintained his recovery. Medical experts say it is almost unheard of for patients to recover from such severe brain injuries after so many years

Unbelievable that Wendy but sat by my brother and he made miraculous recovery after being on one for 3 weeks. Davex

Gracious, that's marvellous, just goes to show there is always hope.

Friend's hubbie had severe stroke and remained in a coma for FOUR years, his family were traumatised and went thro' every emotion in the book. He never regained consciousness and died from a chest infection. The docs said he would have had severe brain damage and no quality of life, are you sure it wasn't kinder to let him slip away? Lily

Thats good for the family,not sure what id do it depends when faced with that situation.My dad was in an induced coma earlier on this year for over 3weeks,the docs wrote him off 4 times but he pulled through..he was suffering severe septacemia and we later found out he had M.R.S.A also= BOTH KILLERS.hes our walking miracle.His recovery has been hampered as he cannot get into physiotherapy til the end of this month(been waiting since March)he walks with the help of crutches and goes very slow.The effects of the coma and the diseases are there..and he may not make a 100% recovery but hes here with us and to me thats all that counts but every case is different. xx

5 years ago my son was driving home after a long day at work with a 2hr drive home.We think he lell asleep,nothing else about,and hit a tree. His brain was very damaged and after 4weeks I was prepared for the worst.If he had not come back to us and stayed brain dead I would of let him go. THankgoodness he pulled out of it and MRSA and is living his life to the full after 6 months in hospital and years of hard work on his part. Jill xx:)

That's always one decision I really dread having to make - simply for the reason that sometimes people do survive and live a normal life. I hope and pray that I'm never faced with that particular dilemma. Mandy

Me, too, Wendy. Joy

My mum had to make that choice in 1999 when my dad was on life support she asked if my dad didn't go himself could she wait till my other sister arrived she was not getting in till 9pm that night, he went him self at at the lunch time so my sister didn't make it. He also gave his body up for medical science so we didn't have his funeral till 1yr and 6mnths later that is a weird feeling and I never want to go through that again

Brain damaged to me means there is always hope of recovery and I would never turn off life support for someone unless it could be proved that the brain was dead. Brain dead would mean to me that the person I knew had already died, even if they were being kept 'alive' by machines.

Sally, That is what I wanted to say but you said it in fewer words!! Jacky :-)

agree completely with gwyneth. so sad a situation though. bryan.