Posted on 10/22/2003 9:04:44 AM PDT by KosmicKitty
Daniel Rios is 24 years old, with wavy black hair, a thick mustache and a glassy stare that seems to look both at you and through you. One day almost four years ago, while he was taking a shower, a blood vessel ruptured in his brain, and he collapsed on the bathroom floor. After emergency surgery, he lay in a coma for three weeks. When he finally opened his eyes, he could not speak or move his body; his head simply lolled. In the months that followed, the doctors monitoring him at the Center for Head Injuries at the J.F.K. Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison, N.J., saw few signs that he had any meaningful mental life. Sometimes he looked as if he were crying. Other times his eyes would follow a mirror passed before his face. On his best days he was able to close his eyes on command. But those days were rare. For the most part he lay unresponsive, adrift in a neurological twilight.
One morning just over a year after his accident, Rios was taken to the Sloan Kettering Institute on Manhattan's East Side. There, in a dim room, a group of researchers placed a mask over his eyes, fixed headphones over his ears and guided his head into the bore of an M.R.I. machine. A 40-second loop of a recording made by Rios's sister Maria played through the headphones: she told him that she was there with him, that she loved him. As the sound entered his ears, the M.R.I. machine scanned his brain, mapping changes in activity. Several hours afterward, two researchers, Nicholas D. Schiff and Joy Hirsch, took a look at the images from the scan. They hadn't been sure what to expect -- Rios was among the first people in his condition to have his brain activity measured in this way -- but they certainly weren't expecting what they saw. ''We just stared at these images,'' recalls Schiff, an expert in consciousness disorders at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. ''There didn't seem to be anything missing.''
As the tape of his sister's voice played, several distinct clusters of neurons in Rios's brain had fired in a manner virtually identical to that of a healthy subject. Some clusters that became active were those known to help process spoken language, others to recall memories. Was Rios recognizing his sister's voice, remembering her? ''You couldn't tell the difference between these parts of his brain and the brain of one of my graduate students,'' says Hirsch, an expert in brain imaging at Columbia University. Even the visual centers of Rios's brain had come alive, despite the fact that his eyes were covered. It was as if his sister's words awakened his mind's eye.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Thank you for posting the picture!!!
I have just watched the usual liberal spin on major stories, as given by CBS, NBC and ABC. No mention of previous success stories, like this one. No mention of the fact that Michael Schiave has now denied Terri's parents the right to visit her in the hospital. The stories on all the networks were labelled: RIGHT TO DIE. What about the Right to Live?
The battle lines have been drawn. Michael Schiavo and his attorney, George Felos will use this event and the liberal media coverage to gain sympathy for their cause. You are witnessing a watershed moment in US History. Terri Schiavo's case will become the "Roe v Wade" of euthanasia.
This boy did eventually have a full recovery, although it took many months of intensive therapy and the heartfelt prayers of his family and many friends. Much later, he confided to my son that he had "dreams" of his friends sitting by his bedside and singing, and he wanted to sing along but couldn't.
Happy ending: today this young man is completely recovered, is married and the father of a lovely family.
I helped a brain injured patient wake up the same way.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.