Category: Brain Injury

By Nancy Valko An April 29, 2020 Nature Journal article titled “Olfactory sniffing signals consciousness in unresponsive patients with brain injuries” found that nasal response to odors (sniffing) by 43 severely brain-injured patients predicted the likelihood of recovery and long-term survival. According to Noam Sobel, PhD, of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, …

By Michael Cook How do we know that patients with acute brain injuries who seem completely unresponsive really are? Some retain what doctors call “covert consciousness” – but which ones? A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine says that about 15% of such patients are responding to verbal commands in their brains …

By Michael Cook A Chinese man has regained consciousness after five years in a coma during which his wife nursed him every day, all day. Li Zhihua, of Hubei Province, was seriously brain-damaged after being knocked off his scooter in 2013. His wife, 57-year-old Zhang Guihuan, became his sole carer. Doctors initially thought that Li …

Family calls him “miracle man” By Dave Andrusko Where have we heard this story before? On December 12, T. Scott Marr is found in his bed, unresponsive but breathing, and rushed to Methodist Hospital where he is placed on a breathing machine. He is diagnosed as having suffered a stroke. The family returns the next …