‘Miracle drugs’ allow man with brain damage to speak

A BRAIN-DAMAGED firefighter who started speaking after almost a decade of near-total silence has had moments of clarity, but nothing as dramatic as that first long conversation on Saturday, his wife said.

Don Herbert’s startling improvement came three months after his medication was changed.

Mr Herbert, who will be 44 on Saturday, went without oxygen for several minutes after being trapped under a collapsed roof while fighting a house fire in Buffalo, New York, in December 1995. He spent two and a half months in a coma, was blind and had little, if any, memory.

But last Saturday, he suddenly asked for his wife, Linda. And over the next 14 to 16 hours, until he fell into a 30-hour sleep early on Sunday, he talked with her, his four sons and other family and friends, catching up on what he had missed.

“He has had several infrequent moments of lucidity, which has given us much hope for further recovery,” Mrs Herbert said yesterday at Erie County Medical Centre in Buffalo. Even though his communication since then had not been as profound, she said, it was still at a level “considerably higher than before Saturday.”

The family had said that Mr Herbert was stunned that nearly a decade had passed. His youngest son was just four when the accident happened.

Dr Jamil Ahmed said Mr Herbert was put on new medication three months ago that he thought might take six months to be effective.

Dr Ahmed tried a combination of three medicines usually used to treat Parkinson’s disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and depression.

He said the cocktail was meant to stimulate neurotransmitters, which brain cells use to communicate with each other.