Brain Recovery After 20 Years of Being Barely Conscious

Terry Wallis, from Arkansas, aged 42, lost his ability to move or speak after a fatal car crash which took place almost 20 years ago. Since then his brain has not been working properly, leaving him tied to the bed and barely conscious.

But his brain seems to have grown new nerve connections, as he can move and speak again. It is also amazing for the doctors to see how a person that has been in a coma for more than 19 years during which, even if awake, he was unable to communicate with the others, recovered so well. Nevertheless, medical specialists state that this kind of spectacular recovery cannot be guaranteed to other less seriously damaged patients.

The improvement of this particular patients' condition started 3 years ago and since then he has made outstanding progress.

Medical specialists also claim that the recovery has not been a sudden one, like it appears to be. The connections of nerves in the brain might have been slowly recovering ever since the accident happened, almost 20 years ago. Therefore, the result we see now, Terry Wallis' ability to move and talk, may be the outcome of a 20 years' "hard work" of the nerve cells.

It is not unusual for nerve cells in the body that are not completely extinct to develop new connections among nerves, but this happens more often to the nerve cells in the superior and inferior limbs. When it comes to nerve cells in the brain, this is rather sporadic.

Dr James Bernat, neurologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Centre briefly explains what was the cause of the fortunate event: "The nerve fibers from the cells were severed, but the cells themselves remained intact."