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Fireman `awakens' after 10 years of virtual silence

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.

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 TV that he could barely see because his vision was so bad.

Neurologists said on Tuesday that such remarkable recoveries for people with severe brain damage are rare -- but perhaps not as rare as medical literature suggests.

"This is a phenomenon that is being frequently reported," said Dr. Joseph Fins, chief of the medical ethics division at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital and an expert on the subject.

"It may be just the tip of the iceberg, and the question is how deep is it, what is the extent, and what are the predictors of this kind of reclaiming of consciousness," he said.

Herbert, a member of a fire rescue squad in Buffalo, was buried under debris after rushing into a burning building on Dec. 29, 1995. He was knocked unconscious and slipped into a coma, but two-and-a-half months later entered a state of faint consciousness that left him mostly unresponsive, according to family members.

After his abrupt awakening on Saturday, family members said, he was resting and slowly reconnecting with friends and relatives. Some friends said he was unable to see them, but could recognize them by their voices.
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