Patient rescued from 23 years in ‘coma’ was conscious all through

November 23rd, 2009 LONDON - A leading European neurologist has said many cases of brain injury around the world are wrongly diagnosed as 'coma' after discovering that a car-crash victim thought to have been in coma for the past 23 years was conscious all the time. Steven Laureys, head of the Coma Science Group and Department of Neurology at Liege University Hospital, spoke after writing about the astounding case of Rom Houben, a Belgian who was thought to have slipped into a persistent vegetative state 23 years ago.

November 19th, 2009 LONDON - One of the Bangaldeshi twins separated in a 25-hour operation in Australia has awoken from an induced coma. Trishna and Krishna, who were rescued from an orphanage in Bangladesh two years ago and brought to Australia where they have been nursed back to health, were separated by a team of 16 surgeons, doctors and nurses at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.

November 19th, 2009 Formerly conjoined twins to need years of careMELBOURNE, Australia — Formerly conjoined Bangladeshi twins separated this week in a marathon surgery will remain in the care of a humanitarian group for at least two years, the organization's CEO said Friday. The Children First Foundation, which brought Trishna and Krishna to Australia for the surgery, will continue to provide care and support for the twins throughout their recoveries, CEO Margaret Smith said.

November 18th, 2009 1 conjoined twin talking after separation surgeryMELBOURNE, Australia — A Bangladeshi toddler separated this week from her conjoined twin sister was talking and behaving normally Thursday after waking from a medically induced coma, the head of the surgery team said. Trishna is already doing well enough that she could leave intensive care, said Wirginia Maixner, director of neurosurgery at Royal Children's Hospital.

November 9th, 2009 Canadian teen rescued on Arctic iceCORAL HARBOUR, Nunavut — Battling hypothermia, a 17-year-old hunter stranded on a floating chunk of ice shot and killed a polar bear while trapped for more than a day before being rescued Monday in the Canadian Arctic. The teen and his 67-year-old uncle, who were polar bear hunting, were reported missing late Saturday, Ed Zebedee, director of the Government of Nunavut's protection services branch, said Monday.

November 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has revealed that lack of sleep can adversely affect the working of the brain in critical situations. The research team led by Dr W.

October 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has revealed that our brains can be trained to consciously see stimuli that would normally be invisible. Study's lead author Caspar Schwiedrzik from the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Germany said the brain is an organ that continuously adapts to its environment and can be taught to improve visual perception.

October 15th, 2009 LONDON - Reading minds would soon be possible, thanks to British scientists who have developed a system that creates "brain to brain communication." The system, developed by a team at the University of Southampton, makes it possible to send messages formed by one person's brain signals through an internet connection to another person's brain many miles away. Christopher James said the experiments were "the first baby steps" towards technologies that would allow people instantly to send thoughts, words, and images directly into the minds of others, reports The Times.

October 9th, 2009 Baby born in Germany to woman in comaBERLIN — A German hospital says a woman has given birth to a healthy baby despite having been in a coma for the last 22 weeks of her pregnancy. Bavaria's Erlangen University Clinic said Friday the family of the 40-year-old woman decided that they wanted the baby to be born even after she went into a coma after a heart attack.

October 8th, 2009 LONDON - The voice of her baby inspired Karen Morrisroe-Clutton, living in coma after contracting E. coli, to fight the illness and recover fast.

October 5th, 2009 Kan. doctor guilty of writing illegal prescriptionWICHITA, Kan. — A Kansas doctor who worked for a physician accused of causing dozens of patient deaths from prescription drugs has pleaded guilty to illegally prescribing a painkiller for a women he never met.

September 21st, 2009 LONDON - An international team of researchers have found that brains of patients in vegetative and minimally conscious state still appears to have the ability to learn. The team hopes that the finding will lead to a simple test that will enable practitioners to assess the patient's consciousness without the need of imaging.

September 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have gained fresh insights into how anaesthesia and anaesthesia-like states are controlled in the brain, opening the door to possible new future treatments of various states of loss of consciousness, such as reversible coma. Marshall Devor, the Cecile and Seymour Alpert Professor of Pain Research, graduate student Ruth Abulafia and research associate Dr.

September 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An 'alert status' area in the brain potentially opens up new ways of treating insomnia, excessive sleepiness, reversible coma or loss of consciousness, says a new study. Hebrew University professor of pain research Marshall Devor, graduate student Ruth Abulafia and research associate Vladimir Zalkind discovered how a brain area participates in the control of "alert status".

September 3rd, 2009 LONDON - A jailed murderer in the UK has won an argument in the court to have cosmetic surgery. Denis Harland Roberts, who was sent behind bars for killing an elderly couple, claimed victory in High Court and the country's publicly funded healthcare system National Health Service (NHS) is to foot the bill.