Sleeping Pill Can Wake People Up

I missed this yesterday, but it's too amazing not to post. Ambien can apparently wake people up from a persistent vegetative state. The anecdotes in this Guardian story are incredible. The drug appears to improve not only brain function but also physical capabilities for people who have barely moved and have not communicated at all for years.

George Melendez was starved of oxygen when his care overturned in a pond near his home in Houston in 1998. His mother, Pat Flores, said doctors told her her son would never recover. He had suffered multi-organ failure and doctors said his body would eventually give out.

He survived and four years later, while visiting a clinic, Pat gave him a sleeping pill because his constant moaning was keeping her and her husband, Del, awake in their shared hotel room. "After 10 to 15 minutes I noticed there was no sound and I looked over," she recalls. "Instead of finding him asleep, there he was, wide awake, looking at his surroundings. I said, 'George', and he said, 'What?' We sat up for two hours asking him questions and he answered all of them. His improvements have continued and we talk every day. He has a terrific sense of humour and he carries on running jokes from the day before.

"It is difficult to describe how it feels to get someone back who you were told you had lost for ever."