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Doctors have their first proof that a man who was barely conscious for nearly 20 years regained speech and movement because his brain spontaneously rewired itself by growing tiny new nerve connections to replace the ones sheared apart in a car crash. Terry Wallis, 42, is one of the few people known to have recovered so dramatically so long after a serious brain injury. He still needs help eating and cannot walk, but his speech continues to improve and he can count to 25 without interruption.

Doctors have proof on how man who was barely conscious for decades woke Doctors have their first proof that a man who was barely conscious for nearly 20 years regained speech and movement because his brain spontaneously rewired itself by growing tiny new nerve connections to replace the ones sheared apart in a car crash. Terry Wallis, 42, is thought to be the only person in the United States to recover so dramatically so long after a severe brain injury. He still needs help eating and cannot walk, but his speech continues to improve and he can count to 25...

Angered by what they see as increasing hostility toward immigrants, hundreds of thousands of people converged on City Hall Saturday to demand amnesty for illegal aliens and reject federal legislation that would build more walls along the U.S.-Mexico border. Protesters, wearing white T-shirts to symbolize peace, danced, chanted and carried large banners as they filled dozens of streets in downtown. They chanted "Mexico!" "USA!" and "Si se puede," an old Mexican-American civil rights shout that means "Yes, we can." Many protesters said lawmakers were unfairly targeting immigrants who provide a major labor pool for America's economy. The rally was organized...

Family Fights To Take Toddler Home Chris Frank Life Or Death Battle Feb. 28-A life or death decision could be hanging in the balance for a child. Little Brett Shively Junior was rushed to the hospital after a terrible accident where he nearly drowned in a bathtub. Now his family is fighting to bring the little boy home. A hearing is scheduled Wednesday in District Court to decide whether or not a Wichita hospital can remove the ventilator keeping the two year old boy alive. Brett's family says, "We just believe that we're the best people to decide his care."...

Forget monitoring vital signs. Monitor talkbacks. The moment that Ariel Sharon takes a turn for the worse, the messages flood in. Thankfully, the great majority are wishes that he might not suffer, or prayers for a miracle recovery. It is a measure of the unbearable meanness of the Internet, however, that the first to arrive are almost always those who wish him ill, wish him hell, or alternatively, those who voice the hope that he will live on to suffer through endless rounds of new surgeries and unimaginable cutting-edge bio-tech tortures.

A Local Family Facing A Life Or Death Decision For A Toddler Feb. 9 The power of prayer and the race against time. The family of a local toddler who nearly drowned is fighting a new battle, one that may require a life or death decision. Life hangs in the balance for two-year-old Brett Shively. Family and friends turn to a higher power for support. They have set up a website http://web.mac.com/brettjr/iWeb/Pray%20for%20Brett%20Jr/Welcome.html dedicated to the toddler and the power of prayer. His family makes a passionate plea for people to pray like they've never prayed before. The doctor told them,...

Doctors inserted a feeding tube in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stomach on Wednesday, according to Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital, where he is being treated for a massive stroke. Sharon, 77, has been in a coma since he suffered a stroke on Jan. 4 and the stomach procedure was further evidence that he is likely to be incapacitated for a long time. Long-term care specialists and a U.S. authority on comatose patients have examined Sharon in recent days. Experts say his chances of regaining consciousness or a meaningful level of activity are slim. "Tonight Prime Minister Ariel Sharon underwent a gastrostomy,...

Father drops court appeal over his little girl's fate The fate of a little girl badly injured in a landslide last September will be decided outside of a Norwegian courtroom. Her father and officials at the Bergen hospital where she's lying in a coma have agreed to cooperate. Oddmund Hjartåker has been fighting to prevent doctors at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen from taking his daughter off a life-support system. Four-year-old Kristina Hjartåker has been linked to a respirator since she was buried under mud and rocks in a landslide set off by heavy rain. Her doctors, other hospital...

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's failure to wake up from a coma nine days after suffering a massive stroke does not bode well for his recovery, some doctors said Friday. With extensive brain damage looking likely, Israelis have begun to look ahead to life without Sharon. Sharon, 77, remained in "critical but stable" condition Friday, showing no change from the previous day, said Hadassah Hospital spokesman Ron Krumer. Israel's Channel 10 TV and Army Radio cited Hadassah officials as saying they were worried Sharon has shown no signs of awakening, even though doctors have begun weaning him off heavy...

ROME, Oct 5 (Reuters) - An Italian man who spent two years supposedly unconscious in a deep coma, written off by doctors as nearly-dead, awoke saying he heard and understood everything happening around him during the long ordeal, his family said. Salvatore Crisafulli, a father of four, is describing his case as a "miracle" which proves that lost causes are anything but hopeless and his recovery appeared to strengthen the hand of Italians opposed to end-of-life solutions. His brother even called Crisafulli "an Italian Terri Schiavo case" with reference to the brain-damaged Florida woman who died in March after her...

It's a new world' Sarah Scantlin making gains in regaining control of her arms in infinitesimal increments By Clara Kilbourn The balls of gauze that protected Sarah Scantlin's feet for two decades have been traded in for a pair of high-top sneakers. A welcome spot of breakfast lingers on her T-shirt, and she smiles when her mother, Betsy Scantlin, talks about Sarah's newfound fondness for Zingers and French fries. "Where's the catsup?" Sarah asked when the French fries were served, Betsy said. In the six months since she spoke her first "OK" - after 20 years of no verbal communication,...

For 20 years, Sarah Scantlin was seemingly unaware of the world around her after she was hit by a drunk driver in an accident that sent her into a comatose state in September of 1984. Then in February, she shocked her parents and doctors when she began to speak. In her first national television interview, after undergoing surgery on her long-unused limbs and speech therapy to unlock her long-dormant tongue, Scantlin speaks with The Early Show national correspondent Tracy Smith in a two-part interview to be broadcast Thursday and Friday. Smith also speaks with Sarah's parents, Jim and Betsy Scantlin,...

Schiavo-like Woman in Recovery Miracle A severely brain-damaged Kansas woman who couldn't talk or feed herself after a car accident two years ago has inexplicably regained those abilities, confounding the predictions of doctors. Tracy Gaskill, 30, began speaking and swallowing about three weeks ago, family members and medical personnel told the Associated Press. Gaskill had suffered head trauma and internal injuries after her car rolled over on a highway in September 2002.

Donald Herbert's breakthrough after a decade in a nearly silent stupor offers more evidence that other patients with severe brain injuries, often written off as hopeless, might improve with treatment, medical experts said last week. Over the last 10 years, he appeared to fluctuate between a vegetative and a minimally conscious state, said Dr. Jamil Ahmed, a rehabilitation specialist at Erie County Medical Center who has treated Herbert since 2002. Herbert unexpectedly started conversing again April 30, his brain apparently stimulated by a new combination of drugs he started taking three months ago. Since then, he has become less active...

Doctor prescribed drug cocktail to stimulate man's brain May 5, 2005 BY CAROLYN THOMPSON BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A brain-injured 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 Saturday, his wife said Wednesday. But she and his doctor remain hopeful. Don Herbert's startling improvment came three months after his medication was changed. Herbert, who will turn 44 Saturday, went without oxygen for several minutes after being trapped under a collapsed roof while fighting a house fire in December 1995. He spent 2-1/2 months in...

When Donald Herbert broke 10 years of virtual silence on Saturday and announced that he wanted to speak to his wife, his family and doctors were astonished and bewildered. Mr. Herbert, 44, a Buffalo firefighter who suffered severe brain damage after being struck by debris in a burning building in 1995, had mustered only "yes" and "no" answers sporadically throughout the years, passing his days in front of a television that he could barely see because his vision was so badly blurred. Neurologists said yesterday that such remarkable recoveries for people with severe brain damage are rare - but perhaps...

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) - Ten years after a firefighter was left brain-damaged and mostly mute during a 1995 roof collapse, he did something that shocked his family and doctors: He perked up. "I want to talk to my wife," Donald Herbert said out of the blue Saturday. Staff members of the nursing home where he has lived for more than seven years raced to get Linda Herbert on the telephone. It was the first of many conversations the 44-year-old patient had with his wife, four sons and other family and friends during a 14-hour stretch, said Herbert's uncle, Simon...

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.

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.

In the aftermath of the death (killing?) of Terri Schiavo, there is a truly inspirational story out of Orchard Park, New York. Firefighter Donald Herbert was injured in 1995 when the roof of the building he was in collapsed. He was buried under debris and his brain was deprived of oxygen for several minutes. He spent the next couple of months in a coma and has been in a brain damaged state, and unable to communicate, for the past 10 years. On Saturday Mr. Herbert said "I want to talk to my wife". This was the first of many conversations...