11/25/07: Awakening

don herbert was a firefighter in buffalo new york on december 29 1995 he was battling a house fire when the building's roof collapsed don was trapped under a pile of debris and nearly suffocated a local news camera captured firefighters pulling don from an attic window by the time his wife linda and four sons reached the hospital don was already in a coma i remember pleading and begging with him in the hospital when he was unresponsive just you know don't leave me don't leave the kids you know we need you you know we need you you try to get them to squeeze your hand or move a toe or something like that it just we're looking for just about anything don herbert did regain consciousness but a few months later slipped into a minimally conscious state he could respond to some stimuli but was unable to communicate moved to a nursing home he was kept alive by a feeding tube i took him to one neurologist and i was basically begging him you know to tell me is he going to get better or isn't he and he just sort of said well look at him what do you see you see what i see there's nothing there and i was just devastated while dawn languished in the nursing home years past and his four boys grew into men determined to keep their father in their lives linda brought don to birthdays and holidays but says he sat slumped in his wheelchair unaware of his surroundings what was it like as a kid growing up and to see your dad like that you'd think after 10 years of seeing them hooked up to feeding tubes and different machines that you'd sort of get used to it or something but i really never did it made me sick to my stomach to go you know i didn't all that often because i just couldn't stand seeing them like that then one day two years ago the nursing home called was shocking news don had woken up and was asking for his family one of the nurses lent the herbert's a video camera to record don's incredible awakening his first words were a struggle he hadn't spoken in nearly a decade family members and buddies from the firehouse rushed to don's room blinded in the accident don recognized everyone by their voice everyone that is except his youngest son nick who was just four when his dad was injured that's nick holding your right hand i'm right here did he understand who you were he still thought that i was really young and he went to uh like put his hand out over me and uh to see like how tall i was and like we just kept telling him to race his hand higher because he was trying to feel for me down low have i been gone quite a while pal wait a while when he learns that he's been gone for 10 years i mean he seems heart sick about it oh yeah you can the sadness is palpable he felt so bad he thought like he abandoned us he felt so bad that he wasn't there for the boys did it feel like an opportunity to say stuff that you never thought you would have yeah here's my chance to really tell them about me you know trying to make him feel proud don herbert's reunion with his family was brief while trying to get out of bed he fell and suffered another brain injury he later contracted pneumonia and less than a year after he woke up don herbert died his awakening was celebrated as a miracle and a family member has written a book about it but dr nicholas schiff a neurologist at weill cornell medical center says though rare he's seen other startling recoveries and believes don herbert's story should be a wake-up call for doctors like george's mom because when i went to medical school like 20 years ago there were very various kinds of one-liners you get in medical school about you know ways ways of understanding a problem and the one liner you get about brain injury was damage done that you know what's done is done what's done is done structural brain injury is unchanging so with people and with patients in minimally conscious state it's not true to say what's done is done i think we know enough now to know that there are some minimally conscious state patients where that statement is false

Channel: CBS News

Views: 8,156,010

Keywords: 60, Minutes, Anderson, Cooper, Coma, Consciousness, Accident, Brain, Damage

Id: p7tLTft4ef8

Length: 4min 26sec (266 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 04 2010

Reddit Comments

[u/blinkehyo]

That's so sad and unfortunate

[u/LordRumBottoms]

10 years in a coma? His body must have been beyond atrophy. Why the hell didn't he have a PT team there for weeks after waking up? I can't imagine he was just free to try and walk on his own.

[u/primproperpomade]

Now that is just terrible, almost as if life gave him one year to square things up and then die again. His poor kids.

[u/BarbarousComputing]

That bit where he asks how long has it been and they tell him 10 years and he's devastated and oh man.. Got me quite a bit in the heartstrings. Hope he's at peace wherever he is.

[u/SpamShot5]

This is why doctors and nurses tell you not to get out of bed after you wake up in the hospital bed after a traumatic injury or surgery, on top of that after a 10 year coma his legs prob wouldnt even be able to support his body due to atrophy

[u/No_Organization5188]

I would have rather have just been killed outright then to put my family through that situation. At least in that ten years they could have moved on.

[u/moodRubicund]

Man fuck this sub all you do is share depressing fucking stories.

[u/Willastro]

Video not available in Canada

[u/Pestyballs]

God : Stay down, final warning