A Buffalo firefighter who made national headlines last year for waking up from a decade-long coma caused by injuries in a roof collapse has died.
Donald Herbert, 44, passed away around 1:45 A.M. on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2006.
According to Dan O'Connor who serves as Secretary Treasurer of the Buffalo Professional Firefighters, the incident took place on December 29, 1995 when part of a roof fell upon the member of Rescue 1, 2nd platoon at a house fire on Interpark Street in Buffalo. The segment pinned Herbert in a sitting position to the attic stairwell, leaving him without air for six to ten minutes
Other firefighters eventually rescued their entrapped brethren, but Herbert remained in an unresponsive, blind, mostly mute state for over nine years. In 2005, a potent drug combination effectively woke him. National news was made when he conversed with family and friends for the first time since the incident. He was shocked to discover how much his children had aged.
See 2005 article: Firefighter Who Emerged From 10 Years of Silence...From then on, Herbert remained wheelchair bound and lived in the Baker Manor Nursing Home. In a weakened state, pneumonia infections eventually caused his death.
Herbert is survived by his wife Linda, and four sons.
A wake will be held from 2 P.M. to 9 P.M Thursday, Feb. 23rd and Friday, Feb. 24th at Quinn Funeral Home, 192 Abbott Road in Buffalo, NY 14220.
A funeral will be 10:30 A.M. on Saturday, Feb. 25th at Our Lady of Victory Basilica on South Park Avenue & Ridge Road in Lackawanna, NY.
A burial will follow the funeral at Holy Cross Cemetary at South Park Avenue & Ridge Road in Lackawanna, NY
A collation will follow the burial at Lucarelli's Banquet Center at 1830 Abbot Road in Lackawanna, NY.
Note: Dress uniform is mandatory for all uniformed personnel - including the wake/viewing hours and funeral Mass.
Firefighter Who Spoke After Being in Coma Dies
CAROLYN THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A brain-injured firefighter who suddenly spoke after nearly a decade in a stupor, giving hope to families of countless other patients, died Tuesday. He was 44.
Donald Herbert was injured in December 1995, when the roof of a burning home collapsed on him. Deprived of oxygen for several minutes, he ended up blind, was largely mute and showed little awareness of his surroundings for years.
But on April 30, 2005, he shocked his family with a 14-hour talking jag. Since then, he spoke only sporadically, his progress hampered by a fall out of bed that caused bleeding on his brain, his doctor said.
Herbert was hospitalized again on Sunday with an infection.
"Don fought very long and hard ... right to the end. Last night he was breathing very hard, trying to keep going," Fire Commissioner Michael Lombardo said.
Herbert is survived by his wife, Linda, and four sons.
His breakthrough came three months after his doctor began giving him drugs normally used to treat Parkinson's disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and depression. Dr. Jamil Ahmed said at the time that the medications had shown promise with more recently brain-damaged patients.
There have been a few other widely publicized examples of brain-damaged patients showing sudden improvement after a number of years, at least temporarily, but experts say they are rare.
Ahmed has said that since Herbert's story became public, families from around the world with loved ones in comas have called to inquire about the drug combination.
"I'm hoping and expecting to work on many patients," Ahmed said Tuesday. "It's worth trying when the families are willing."
He said Herbert's pneumonia was unrelated to the drug treatment, noting brain-injured patients are susceptible to infections because of the body's weakened state.
Until the weekend before his death, Herbert continued to interact and speak, but never to the extent of the initial burst, said Lombardo, a longtime friend. As recently as last week, Herbert had been playing catch with his sons in the nursing home where he lived, the commissioner said.
"He was never as good as he was right after he woke up ... but he was pretty good right up to the end," Lombardo said.
Ahmed said the fall in June at the nursing home occurred as Herbert was apparently trying to get out of bed on his own. He said the bleeding prevented the medications from working, making further progress difficult. Ahmed had been arranging for Herbert to be seen by a neurosurgeon when he died.
Herbert's uncle, Simon Manka, said Herbert developed pneumonia over the weekend and did not improve with antibiotics. His wife and sons were with him when he died.
After reawakening last year, Herbert had been surprised to find he had been unresponsive for so long. His sons were 14, 13, 11 and 3 at the time of the accident.
"It was very, very disturbing. He felt like he wasn't there for his children and he certainly was," Lombardo said.
