After Nearly 10 Years Without Talking, Something Clicked in Brain-Damaged Firefighter's Brain
BUFFALO, N.Y. (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.
Over 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 9
