Silent patient asks for wife...

danalec99 · May 4, 2005

Posted on Wed, May. 04, 2005
Patient silent for years suddenly gets chatty

The Associated Press

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. Nearly 9½ years after a firefighter was left brain-damaged and mostly mute in a roof collapse, he did something that shocked his family and doctors: He asked for his wife.

Staff members of the nursing home where Donald Herbert has lived for more than seven years raced to phone Linda Herbert.

The conversation was the first of many the patient had with his relatives and friends Saturday in a 14-hour stretch, said Herbert's uncle, Simon Manka.

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, who will turn 44 on Saturday, was fighting a house fire Dec. 29, 1995, when the roof collapsed, burying him under debris. After going without air for several minutes, Herbert was comatose for 2½ months and has undergone therapy ever since.

News accounts since his injury describe Herbert as blind and with little, if any, memory. Video shows him apparently unable to communicate and with little awareness of his surroundings.

Manka declined Monday 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.

Rose Lynn Sherr of New York University Medical Center said that when patients recovered from brain injuries, they usually did so within two or three years.

The Associated Press

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LittleMan · May 4, 2005

:shock: That's really amazing! :shock:

10 years is a long time.... think of how shocked his wife was when she answered the phone...

Great news... although it kinda makes me think of Terri Schiavo :meh:

Big Mike · May 4, 2005

There is a slightly similar story in the news here today. Here in Edmonton in 2000, an elderly gentleman tried to escort an intoxicated bum, who had been sleeping in the entrance of an apartment, outside. The elderly man was beaten to within an inch of his life and has been an invalid ever since. Just recently, his wife was able to raise enough money to get some sort of speech computer that will allow her husband to communicate with her for the first time in 5 years.