He was beaten and left for dead one night in a robbery while walking home in 1999. His skull was crushed and his brain severely damaged. The doctor said if he pulled through at all, he'd be a vegetable for the rest of his life...
But researchers chose him for an experimental attempt to rev up his brain by placing electrodes in it. And here's how his mother describes the change in her son, now 38:
"My son can now eat, speak, watch a movie without falling asleep," she said Wednesday while choking back tears during a telephone news conference. "He can drink from a cup. He can express pain. He can cry and he can laugh.
"The most important part is he can say, `Mommy' and `Pop.' He can say, `I love you, Mommy' ... I still cry every time I see my son, but it's tears of joy."
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2 comments:
Sad, but an old fashioned hopeful story. Technology and a daring rationality making one man's life, and perhaps of many, a much better one than he seemed fated to.
In an era where Planet Pepe celelebrates the socialist wards where all may be made equally and communally fatally Sicko, it is refreshing to read this sort of "can do" story.
It also reminded me of "clinically dead" and plug-pullers vs. using technology in a capacity such as this.
Dr. Frankenstein would be proud.
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