Kyle Varner’s Blog

posted by Kyle on Aug 2

This is a really fascinating story. Essentially, there was a brain injured patient who had been in a minimally conscious state for the past six years. The man was the unfortunate victim of an assault which led to severe brain damage.

Essentially, doctors put a wire deep into his brain and sent electrical impulses into his brain on and off for around six months. The result: he can speak a little bit (he was even able to recite half of the pledge of allegiance).

This offers a great deal of promise to many other patients also suffering from serious brain injuries. Unfortunately, this patient will not be recovering fully, but, as his mother said,

Now, my son can eat, express himself and let us know if he is in pain. He enjoys a qualify of life we never thought possible

Modern medicine is pretty cool. Wanna see how a deep brain stimulator works? Check out this video!

Here are some news articles about this case:

Brain-Injured Man Speaks After 6 Years

Brain-Injured Man ‘Jump Started’ Awake

So, go and read these articles. They’re pretty cool. I’m going to do some more reading about deep brain stimulation, and try to write a little more about it on this blog.