Amazing story showing that sometimes doctors are wrong!

After 10 years, ex-firefighter recovers memory and speech
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN - The New York Times - 05/03/05 A former Buffalo, N.Y., firefighter who apparently suffered brain damage in a 1995 burning roof collapse and has since been virtually silent and nearly blind had a sudden unexplained recovery on Saturday, animatedly speaking to family and friends and trying to recover a lost decade.
‘‘How long have I been gone?'' the puzzled former firefighter, Donald Herbert, 44, asked in a 14-hour marathon of hugs, kisses, reunions and conversations with his wife, four sons, other relatives and old firefighter comrades.
‘‘We told him almost 10 years, and he said ‘Holy Cow!' '' Simon A. Manka, his uncle, recalled Monday. ‘‘He thought it had been three months.''
In a news conference at Father Baker Manor, a skilled nursing home in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, where Herbert has been a patient for seven years, Manka said his nephew abruptly returned to life and ‘‘began to speak after nine and a half years of silence.''
Pending medical tests, Manka said, the extent and probable duration of Herbert's recovery are unknown. ‘‘However, we can tell you he did recognize several family members and friends and did call them by name.''
It happened out of the blue Saturday morning, a nursing home employee said.
‘‘I want to talk to my wife,'' Herbert was quoted as saying. A staff member called his wife, Linda, but it was his youngest son, Nicholas, 13, who picked up the phone and began speaking.
‘‘That can't be,'' Herbert said. ‘‘He's just a baby. He can't talk.''
Nicholas was indeed a toddler when Herbert, then a 34-year-old member of a fire rescue squad, rushed into a burning apartment building in Buffalo on the morning of Dec. 29, 1995. He wore a breathing mask against heavy smoke and was searching the attic for victims when the roof collapsed.
Buried under flaming debris, Herbert was knocked unconscious and, according to reports at the time, went six minutes without oxygen before other firefighters pulled him free. They carried him out a window and down a ladder, and he was taken to Erie County Medical Center in critical condition.
Herbert, who had rescued two adults and two small children in a 1990 fire and had many citations for bravery, had severe head trauma as well as prolonged oxygen deprivation and remained in a coma for two and a half months.
Fellow firefighters rallied around the family, helping with the boys, with shopping, with financial help. The outpouring of support included a benefit party at the Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo. Thousands attended, and tens of thousands of dollars were raised.
While Herbert regained consciousness in 1996, his speech was slurred, he was unable to eat without assistance, he was confined to a bed or wheelchair and his vision was reduced to a series of blurs. Doctors said they had found no damage to the optic nerves, but that the part of the brain that controls vision appeared to have been damaged.
Moreover, Herbert's memory seemed all but nonexistent. He could not say how old he was or what his job had been. He seemed unable to recognize family members and friends, and firefighting comrades had become virtual strangers.
On Saturday, as word of Herbert's progress spread, a stream of visitors arrived at Father Baker Manor for joyous reunions with a man who had seemed lost to them.
For a stretch of 14 hours, Manka said, Herbert spoke with people and asked questions, especially about his sons: Donny, now 24, and Thomas, 23, both in graduate school; Patrick, 21, a college student, and Nicholas, 13, a schoolboy.
‘‘He wouldn't go to sleep,'' said Linda Herbert's mother, Mary Blake. ‘‘He stayed up all night talking to his sons.''
Manka, a lawyer, said in a telephone interview that his nephew's apparent recovery struck everyone as amazing. ‘‘He was completely different,'' he said. ‘‘He was asking questions, and he'd recognize a voice.''
Patrick J. Coghlan was the lieutenant in charge of Herbert's rescue squad on the night of the roof collapse; he retired in 1999. On Sunday, he said, Herbert recognized the voices of his comrades and, while he could not see them, identified members of his old crew.
‘‘We have no idea how it happened,'' said Blake. ‘‘There are more people praying for this young man, so it's all in God's hands. Even if we had him for just one day, we'd be eternally grateful.''http://www.helenair.com/articles/2005/05/03/national/a01050305_06.prt