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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Sleeping pill Zolpidem awakens girl from coma [UK]
#7578433 - 10/30/07 09:12 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Sleeping pill Zolpidem awakens girl from coma October 31, 2007 - telegraph.co.uk
A girl who has spent six years in a coma is showing signs of life after taking a sleeping pill.
Amy Pickard, 23, had lain in her bed, unable to eat or breathe for herself since falling unconscious in 2001.
But after being enrolled in a study of the side-effects of the sleeping pill Zolpidem, her eyes have begun to sparkle and she has even managed to stand.
Amy's mother, Thelma Pickard, 54, has visited her every day at the Raphael Medical Centre in Tonbridge, Kent, and claims that she can see her "feisty and determined" daughter fighting her way to recovery.
She reacts to strong-tasting foods, can breathe unaided, focus on objects in her room and is beginning to formulate words.
"When she takes the pill, I see her face relax and the old sparkle return to her eyes. It truly is remarkable," said Mrs Pickard.
Amy, who is the subject of a BBC1 documentary The Waking Pill to be broadcast tonight, was 17 and studying for her A-Levels at Filsham Valley School in East Sussex when she was persuaded to inject heroin by her then boyfriend.
She is one of 360 people taking part in a worldwide trial of Zolpidem as a treatment for people in comas. Sixty per cent of patients taking part in the study have started showing signs of life.
The drug's side-effects were first discovered after a 24-year-old South African cyclist suffered a serious brain injury after being hit by a lorry in 1994. Doctors told his parents that he would never regain consciousness.
Five years after his accident, nurses noticed he was involuntarily grabbing at his mattress and gave him Zolpidem to help him sleep more deeply. Instead, just 25 minutes later, he sat up in bed and said: "Hello, mummy."
The British firm ReGen Therapeutics began a trial and, as one of those involved, Amy's mother was flown to South Africa to meet other patients who had tried it.
She said: "I've had so many disappointments in my life, so I didn't set my expectations too high. When I came back from South Africa, I was exhausted, but the hope in my heart was intense.
"But the more I saw, the more I heard and the more I experienced, the more I realised Amy must try this new treatment."
Barely four weeks after taking her first pill, Amy, who has an older brother David, 27, is making good progress.
Doctors have warned Mrs Pickard it could take months for a breakthrough, but she believes her daughter is already on the road to recovery.
"When I look at her now I can see the old Amy coming through, fighting to get out. It's a day-to-day waiting game to see what will happen next, but I just know she's going to speak any day," she said.
"Every day she takes the tablet, it gives me more and more hope. My life is better now than it's ever been over the past six years."
The story echoes the plot of the film Awakenings, which stars Robert de Niro and Robin Williams. It is based on real events, in which a research physician uses an experimental drug to "awaken" the catatonic victims of a rare sleeping sickness.
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,287
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
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Re: Sleeping pill Zolpidem awakens girl from coma [UK] [Re: veggie]
#7578508 - 10/30/07 09:30 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Her eyes have begun to sparkle.
I dont even know what that means...
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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gmuralid
Holy Cow



Registered: 08/05/07
Posts: 405
Loc: India
Last seen: 7 years, 3 months
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Re: Sleeping pill Zolpidem awakens girl from coma [UK] [Re: Madtowntripper]
#7578859 - 10/30/07 11:01 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Ever looked in the eyes of someone in or close to coma state? Its like the lights are on, but still no ones home, almost a lost, soulless look. I think thats what she means, that its like theres a sparkle 'of life' in her eyes. Less soulless if you will.
-------------------- Wilderness. It defines me.
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SDP
ChronicAficionado




Registered: 01/21/05
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Re: Sleeping pill Zolpidem awakens girl from coma [UK] [Re: veggie]
#7579559 - 10/31/07 06:47 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
veggiesaid:[/b
-------------------- Teonanacatl, open up my eyes This sacrament, this prayer, beyond the world of lies Guide me clearly through that which I dont understand Give me strength to find the path Help me fight any demons as you flow through me wholely This is my prayer, that you protect me from evil, and bring me closer to peace And open up my eyes, so i can see things as you do Amen
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gmuralid
Holy Cow



Registered: 08/05/07
Posts: 405
Loc: India
Last seen: 7 years, 3 months
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Re: Sleeping pill Zolpidem awakens girl from coma [UK] [Re: SDP]
#7580346 - 10/31/07 11:37 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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No shit!
-------------------- Wilderness. It defines me.
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