Buffalo Firefighter Awakens from 10 Year Coma

WBEN Radio, Buffalo, NY ^ | May 2, 2005 | Paul Szelgowski

[bolingbroke]

In what family members are calling a miracle, a Buffalo firefighter is talking again after nearly a decade in a brain-damaged state.

Donald Herbert suffered severe injuries when a roof collapsed on him while he was fighting a fire in December 1995. The injury left him brain damaged and unable to speak.

[bolingbroke]

But miracles don't happen, do they Michael Sciavo?

[TXFireman]

Where/who was that other recent case?

[GWB00]

Yeah, I bet you he is grateful he wasn't married to Michael Schiavo.

[GWB00]

Yeah, I bet you he is grateful he wasn't married to Michael Schiavo.

[b4its2late]

Good thing they didn't take away water and food because then he'd only be euphoric instead of alive.....

[CT CONSERVATIVE]

Lets thank the Lord his doctor wasnt Michael Schaivo

[TheDon]

The article doesn't give enough information, but it sure doesn't sound like he was in a coma.

[dmz]

What would be even more miraculous if the posts that begin this thread were not so damned predictable.

Take this quiz with me. It's only 1 question, and it's a True or False.

1) A coma is exactly the same thing as a persistent vegetative state. (T / F)

[Rytwyng]

The article doesn't give enough information, but it sure doesn't sound like he was in a coma.

Neither was Terri Schiavo.

[Rytwyng]

Maybe interviewer should brief him on the Terri Schiavo case, and broadcast his response?

[stylin19a]

can i buy a vowel ?

[FormerACLUmember]

These "miracles" happen all the time. If Culture of Death Judicial Tyrants like Felos or Greer were involved, this gentleman would have been murdered. Simple as that.

[verity]

The firefighter is queer?

[Crazieman]

Some woman in Hutchinson, KS

[Nathan Zachary]

It's pointless trying to explain anything to these people.

[cvq3842]

God Bless this man and his family. I know what you mean about the Schiavo case, although it might start a flame war to say so . . .

[El Conservador]

Thanks for your kind attempt at adding common sense to this thread, but, under the circumstances, it's simply pointless.

[dmz]

My name is Don, Don Quixote.

[explodingspleen]

Arrogant condescension is such a wonderful substitute for ratiocination, don't you agree?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Yeah, I bet you he is grateful he wasn't married to Michael Schiavo.

For more reasons than one, I'm sure.

[SlowBoat407]

Herbert has been at the Father Baker Covalence Home

Am I missing something, or has he been bonding with atoms for the last ten years?

[trisham]

Buffalo, NY (WBEN/AP) -- In what family members are calling a miracle, a Buffalo firefighter is talking again after nearly a decade in a brain-damaged state.

Donald Herbert suffered severe injuries when a roof collapsed on him while he was fighting a fire in December 1995. The injury left him brain damaged and unable to speak.

Herbert has been at the Father Baker Covalence Home for the past several years, but relatives say over the weekend he started talking again and his memory has returned.

Friends and former colleagues say he talked with his family and with former co-workers. Stay tuned to WBEN for more information.

*************

The title states he was in a coma, but I wonder after reading the article. He's a lucky man that his family loved him enough to allow him to live. I wonder how Michael Schiavo will feel if he reads this story?

[DaGman]

I'll bet he had a cerebral cortex.

[Nyboe]

you think that murderer cares ?

He got away with killing his wife and is off spending the insurance money as we speak.

[Nyboe]

that murdering jerk Schiavo is probably golf partners with OJ

[trisham]

Michael Schiavo has feelings?

*************

Rudimentary feelings. ;)

[alloysteel]

But-but-but wasn't his feeding tube disconnected, even though he was breathing on his own?

Oh. I am confusing this with another series of unfortunate incidents that took place recently.

[princess leah]

That firefighter has missed an awful lot these past ten years (ie: hundreds of his co-firefighters died in 9/11 - wonder how he'll respond when he hears how America was attacked almost 4 years ago)...I'll bet his family is estatic over this miracle. Thank you Lord for Your grace in his life!

[HamiltonJay]

This happens if memory serves to a cop a few years back, was shot in line of duty and in coma for a long time, awoke and spoke and was lucide and functional etc for a brief period (days? maybe a week or two) of time and then relapsed and died.

[MHGinTN]

I'll bet Terri Schiavo had 'some cerebral cortex, also. Severely brain damaged? Yes, but she had to have some cortex else the videos of her swallowing and licking her lips pruposefully in 1993 couldn't have been recorded. Seen them?

[Smartaleck]

"Herbert has been at the Father Baker Covalence Home
Am I missing something, or has he been bonding with atoms for the last ten years?"

as those cations go rolling along.........

[Conservatrix]

He should have been forced to experience the euphoria of dying slowly of thirst over 12 days.

Why, that beats waking from a coma anyday!

[clyde asbury]

..has he been bonding with atoms for the last ten years?

Insight into the question "is carbon essential for life?"

[DaGman]

"I'll bet Terri Schiavo had 'some cerebral cortex, also. Severely brain damaged? Yes, but she had to have some cortex else the videos of her swallowing and licking her lips pruposefully in 1993 couldn't have been recorded. Seen them?"

I'm sure she did in 1993, and very likely a full cerebral cortex. She did not have a cerebral cortex when she died 12 years later.

[MHGinTN]

Prove it. It wasn't hard for some to execute a woman who smiled at her Mother ... 12 years later. And what transpired in that 12 years? Massive abuse via forced neglect.

[Coleus]

Donald Herbert was badly injured in a December 1995 fire.

 

But miracles don't happen, do they Michael Schiavo? >>>

And it seems very few reporters of the MSM mentioned the Terri Schiavo correlation. I know Commie Couric and Matt Lauer never mentioned it. There's over 250 articles out there and a few mention Terri

No explanation for firefighter's recovery

Firefighter recovers from a 10-year coma

Firefighter Regains Memory

Silent since 1995, firefighter talks

It happened early Saturday afternoon, at about 1:30 or 2. Buffalo Firefighter Donald Herbert, sitting in a wheelchair in the hallway of his Orchard Park nursing home, looked out the window and asked where his wife, Linda, was.

Staff members couldn't have been more stunned.

For more than nine years, Herbert has suffered from a profound brain injury after being badly injured in a December 1995 fire, when a roof collapsed on him. Buried under debris and without air for six minutes, he lapsed into a coma for the next 2¹/2 months.

Since then, he has been unable to see, verbally recognize loved ones' voices or carry on any kind of meaningful conversation.

That all changed Saturday and early Sunday. For about 16 hours, until roughly 6 a.m. Sunday, the 43-year-old Herbert remained awake. He visited with his wife and sons, some fellow firefighters and other close friends who rushed to his room in Father Baker Manor.

He kept asking where and how his wife and four sons were. He recognized the voices of loved ones. And he was responsive.

"Donny, you feel OK?" one relative asked him.

"I feel great," he replied.

At another point, Herbert asked how long he had been "under" and was told it had been almost 10 years.

"I thought it was three months," he replied.

Relatives were thrilled - but extremely cautious - Monday, stressing that doctors have to examine Herbert, to see what this means.

"He was cognizant, able to recognize people's voices and recall who his family members and friends were," Simon F. Manka, his uncle and the family spokesman, said Monday. "But there's still room for a lot of improvement."

Family members said that after the 16-hour interaction with his loved ones, Herbert fell into an almost uninterrupted sleep, for at least the next 30 hours.

What really stunned Herbert's family and friends was the suddenness of the change.

"From what I understand, this is a sea change that is not incremental, but something that is light-switch different," said attorney Thomas H. Burton, a family friend who represented Linda Herbert in the family's personal-injury lawsuit. "What has occurred is so stunning, I don't know how you can call it anything but a miracle."

Medical experts say it's impossible to say, and way too early to tell, what the consequences are for Herbert.

Dr. Michael A. Meyer, a University at Buffalo professor of clinical neurology at Jacobs Neurological Institute, said such changes are both encouraging and rare. But they do occur.

"After that many years, it's unusual to see that dramatic a change," he said. "But we do hear about it anecdotally."

In most similar cases, Meyer said, the progress reaches a plateau at some point.

"In rare cases like this, there may be improvement over months or years," he said. "But where the plateau is, is anybody's guess."

Manka talked about how emotional it was, after all these years, to have his nephew recognize his voice and call him by name. Family members were trying to stay on an even keel.

Despite the family's caution, speculation already began to surface Monday about Herbert's possible recovery being used as a miracle in the bid to make Father Nelson Baker of Lackawanna a saint. There were unconfirmed reports that Herbert has at least one photo or other artifact of Father Baker in his room.

Monsignor Robert C. Wurtz, the local leader of the Father Baker canonization bid, said he had no information on the situation, other than what he has heard indirectly. For anything to happen, the family would have to come forward.

"I'm open to meet with them," Wurtz said.

At a brief news conference Monday at the nursing home, Manka issued this plea to the public about Herbert's condition:

"Keep praying, please wait while we have him evaluated and respect his family's privacy," he said.

As Burton said of the dramatic change, "If this is something that took place through divine intervention, I'm doing my best to help it along with a lot of prayer."

[JOE43270]

God Bless Donald!

[Irish_Thatcherite]

There is always hope!

[ninenot]

You have FReepmail on this topic.

[ninenot]

how Michael Schiavo will feel

That's your FIRST assumptive error.

[sweetliberty]

Good thing it didn't happen in Florida. He'd have been put down.

[Aquinasfan]

Relatives were thrilled - but extremely cautious - Monday, stressing that doctors have to examine Herbert, to see what this means.

I'd be extremely cautious if doctors were preparing to examine him too. The doctors may recommend the euphoria of death by starvation and dehydration.

[The Mayor]

BTTT!

[mia]

I just listened to a press conference regarding the fire fighter. The fire fighter (Mr. Herbert) was approximately 10 minutes without oxygen. Two and a half years ago Mr. Herbert's wife took her husband to a doctor at the Erie County Medical Facility. The doctor said at that time he first examined Mr. Herbert, Mr. Herbert was in a persistent vegetative state and had been in that condition for approximately five years. Recently the doctor started treating Mr. Herbert with medications commonly used for ADHD, Parkinson's' disease and antidepressants.

His nurse at the nursing home said that not only is Mr. Herbert recognizing his family, but is recognizing his nursing staff -- long and short term memory recollection. He is very tired and is not always as responsive as he was the other day. His doctor said that this is expected.

The doctor is very optimistic about the outcome and thanks God and the availability of medication for Mr. Herbert's recovery.

[mia]

bttt

[mia]

bump it up

[The Mayor]

Hi Mia!

[Saundra Duffy]

How beautiful!