Man Wakes Up From Coma Thanks To Revolutionary Therapy

When a person wakes up from a coma after being in a coma for years, it is almost always big news.

However, what happened recently in a French hospital makes this even more special from a scientific point of view. Without a doubt, it gives hope to many relatives of patients in similar situations.

The development took place in the neurological department of the Pierre Wherteimer Hospital in Lyon, France. We specifically say ‘development’, as it did not happen spontaneously or by chance.

Our lucky protagonist is 50 years old and had been in a coma since he was 35 years old. This happened after he became paralyzed in a serious traffic accident.

The University of Lyon, located right next to this hospital , also commissioned an interesting study. This was based on the simple stimulation of the vagus nerve.

However, it was a slow process. Even today it is waiting for more achievements and progress. Furthermore, the patient suffers from various side effects and awakens very slowly.

However , he already responds to various stimuli, can concentrate on something, can focus his gaze and even turn his head to something that interests him.

It’s just a start, but it’s the first phase. It is also the first step towards progress that will no doubt be coming out with great news soon.

Now let’s see what this theory is based on. It was developed by a top team of doctors. This team was led by a researcher at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences, Marc Jeannerod.

Awakened from a coma after 15 years

If there’s one thing psychologists and psychiatrists keep telling us, it’s that there’s nothing more puzzling than explaining exactly what consciousness is.

However, people who have a loved one who is in a coma know perfectly well that it is a strange state between life and death. They maintain their vital functions. However, they are lost in a world far away and have lost their understanding of being human.

However, you have to keep in mind that this thin thread of neuron activity that limits consciousness is often very fragile. Bringing the sensitive and real world back to the person who is in a vegetative state is therefore a challenge for many scientists.

The Vagus Nerve: The Key to ‘Awakening’

The article was originally published in Current Biology magazine . However, it made the world news in a short time.

Scientists, for their part, warn against caution. Until now, only one patient has undergone this therapy and has awakened from a coma. It is therefore necessary to test it on more people. In addition, it remains to be tested whether this works for different types of brain damage. It is necessary to try it on more people with different problems to determine the exact extent of this possibility.

The therapy is based around the stimulation of the vagus nerve. The treatment itself works through the application of small pacemakers around the patient’s vagus nerve.

Remember that the vagus nerve connects an infinite number of nerves, organs and structures in our brain. It is like a channel through which an infinite number of functions are connected. This ‘active’ nerve determines whether you react in this way or another.

What the scientists did in this case was to stimulate a specific part that connects to the vagus nerve: the reticular format.

This fascinating structure is responsible for, among other things, regulating our sleep and consciousness.

It was from this premise that the team of neurologists started: If they stimulated the vagus nerve, would the consciousness of patients in coma return?

The result was very slow, but effective. The first person to try the pacemakers on woke up after being submerged in an unconscious world for 15 years.

More studies are necessary

The reaction of the scientific world in general is that one should be careful. The technique of stimulating the vagus nerve is not new. In fact, it has been used for some time for people suffering from epilepsy and severe depression.

What it does is ‘reactivate’ consciousness and organ activities. However, this activation is a very slow process. After this treatment, one should continue to work on the therapy.

Although the patient has awakened from a coma, he is still not autonomous. He also has no way of communicating with his environment yet.

The patient is conscious, that’s right. He is awake: there is no doubt about that either. However, he cannot communicate. Nor is there any evidence that he is aware of the situation he is in.

The only activity he has shown so far has to do with his eyesight. When something has his attention he looks and observes it. He seems to have a special interest when his family reads to him. 

As we said, it is very difficult to determine exactly what consciousness is. No doubt it has different steps and levels. This patient is clearly bad on the first level.

He still misses a few steps before he fully wakes up from a coma and will be able to communicate with and react independently to his environment.

We hope that with time and sufficient brain stimulation he will regain those possibilities.

In the meantime, we are waiting for more news about the stimulation of the vagus nerve for coma patients.