Waking up after 20 years
It's like a real-life Lifetime movie:
A woman unable to talk since she was hit by a drunken driver 20 years ago has begun to regain her memory and form words, sending her father "from despair to joy." ...I can't imagine how hard this has been for her parents. Brain damage really, really, really sucks.Scantlin was 18 when she was struck while walking to her car in 1984. She had been aware of her surroundings but unable to make any sounds other than loud crying until a month ago, when she told staff members, "OK, OK." ...
She is now forming other words, counting and remembering people and places, staff members said.
An old girlfriend of mine introduced me to an uncle who had been in a car accident in the late 80's, which left him with a terrible form of brain damage. He couldn't control the muscles on the right side of his body -- and only barely move those on the left. When he tried to speak, it was more like grunting and moaning. But the saddest part about it all was that beneath his physical disability, his mind was still perfectly intact.
He had a speech synthesizer -- much like the one Stephen Hawking uses -- so I caught a little glimpse of how his mind was working. "What's the difference between Bill Clinton and the Titanic?" the computerized voice asked me. "I don't know, what's the difference?"
"They know how many went down on the Titanic."
It must have been terrible for him to be so aware of his condition. The worst part of the evening came when choked at dinner. He flailed in his chair, unable to do anything about the fact that he couldn't breathe, while his mother and father tried to stay calm and retrieve the piece of meat from his throat. Afterwards, he started crying in a tone that I can't even begin to describe -- the expression of helplessness and frustration from a man whose mind was perfectly capable of understanding exactly what was happening to him, and that he could do nothing about it.
It will be really amazing if Miss Scantlin's higher brain functions survived her accident after all this time. As for her parents, I can't imagine the reignited hope they must be feeling and the frustration and despair that they may have to face if there comes a point where their daughter doesn't improve. Twenty years is a long time to wait for an "OK, OK". I hope, for all their sakes, that there's a lot more to come.
Posted by Matt at February 11, 2005 2:08 PM
