Donald Herbert, a firefighter who had been unable to speak due to brain-damage suffered in the line of duty made a surprising leap foreward in his recovery recently. After 9 years, mostly spent in a Convelescence Home, he suddenly started talking earlier this weekend.
Friends and family say that both his speach and memory appear to have returned.
The reason for his recovery is still unclear. One theory is that while his family were told that talking to him would help, this is the first time anyone shut up long enough for him to respond...
Seriously though, I've been hearing this story all day on local radio, yet couldn't find more than one story about it on the net. I'm not saying that there is a media conspiracy to bury this story, even though it does bring up eerie images of Terry Schiavo. I figure it's just another case of "if it bleeds, it leads." This is a feel good story, and is thus relegated to the bottom of the news pile.
I just hope that I'm wrong about that. Who knows, maybe it'll hit the big-time media in a couple of days.
Posted by GEBIV at May 2, 2005 09:26 PMIronically, the UK Guardian has a better story than any American press:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4978848,00.html
Posted by: Harvey at May 3, 2005 10:36 AM