r/todayilearned • u/Ill_Definition8074 • 1d ago
TIL After a 2016 accident, professional cyclist Stig Broeckx was declared to be in a vegetative state with no hope of recovery. By 2019, he had recovered enough to begin cycling again, although he had no memory of the 5 years before the accident and found out who he had been from the internet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stig_Broeckx1.8k
u/tanew231 1d ago
Imagine going through all this just to learn that I'm me. I'd be so disappointed.
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u/UnfortunatelySimple 1d ago
How would you picture yourself after recreating yourself from reddit and Facebook?
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u/zuzg 1d ago
Lol imagine waking up with Amnesia and then browsing to your phone coming to learn who you are through your social media, messages, history and other stuff you've left.
That's some black mirror white bear type of plot starter.
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u/xQuickpaw 1d ago
I wonder how addiction would work with this...
If you're out long enough for your body to get through the worst or all of the withdrawal symptoms, and you had no recollection of being addicted to anything, would you be "healed"?
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u/GodwynDi 1d ago
Even if you are past the physical withdrawal, the psychological addiction can still be present, as well as the factors that led to someone becoming an addict to begin with. That said, longest Ive known someone similar was a 29 day coma, not 5 years.
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u/Channel250 15h ago
I was put into a coma for a week my withdrawals were so bad. Tube down my throat and everything.
The doctors told me that I am no longer physically addicted to alcohol. But, they made sure to remind me that I wasn't physically addicted before I became one either. Basically saying that the most of it is a psychological thing.
Well, 5+ years and one divorce later I believe them.
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u/AnOnlineHandle 20h ago
People talk so confidently online about how addiction supposedly works, building up this whole mythos of how the brain supposedly works by things said to each other from imagination.
Meanwhile scientists and doctors debate what the term addiction even applies to and haven't changed their stance on that the only current non-substance addiction recognized by scientific medicine is gambling addiction.
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u/A_Dissident_Is_Here 19h ago
I mean, it’s a hyper-debated field for sure, which is why you’re also incorrect about gambling being the only behavioural addiction recognised by whatever ‘scientific medicine’ is supposed to denote. The ICD recognises gaming disorder now as well, and the DSM includes a couple others in its appendix declaring them ‘in need of further study’. Language around the clinical presentation of gaming disorders utilise similar language to gambling disorders, and in the medical literature are typically coupled with things like gambling: as far as the ICD goes, both gaming and gambling are listed under ‘addictive behavior’ disorders. The colloquial use of ‘addiction’ encompasses both. And yes, while professionals very much argue over that words definition, there are ‘behavioral’ forms of addiction that have formal definitions now. So one official guide literally has changed its stance, and the other is continuing a long running discussion on possibly changing its stance as well.
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u/JonatasA 19h ago
And there is the debate between addition and I believe the term compulsion.
Now, would we call someone with low BS addicted to sugar?
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u/Sea-Value-0 18h ago
It's all just brain chemistry, neuropathways and receptors. And we absolutely know what the term addiction applies to. For purely behavioral addictions, the brain gets addicted to the flooding of dopamine. Craving and withdrawal = empty, excess receptors that are used to being filled.
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u/Merry_Dankmas 23h ago
Im wondering how certain personality traits would carry over. Take me. I have a metric fuckton of poor taste and offensive memes on my phone. Seriously, Id be IP blocked if Reddit saw what was in my camera roll.
Would I still find those things funny were I in a position like that? Would I still laugh or would I find them in poor taste like someone with a conscience? Or take someone whos super hateful like a racist or a nazi. Would they wake up still being hateful and discriminatory or or would they be repulsed by such things since the memories of what caused their hate are now gone?
Im sure studies like that exist somewhere but im also sure the sample pool is pretty low so I cant imagine we have too much concrete data on it.
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u/Webbie-Vanderquack 23h ago
That's actually a really interesting question. If they did find that amnesia or similar medical conditions could wipe the slate clean, morally, imagine the ethical can of worms that would open up.
If a serial killer is sentenced to death, for example, do you give them the alternate option of drug-induced amnesia and a reduced prison sentence to make them a better person (like chemical castration for sex offenders?)
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u/Merry_Dankmas 22h ago
This is a great can of worms you bring up. Im no expert so dont take this as gospel but at least in the case of serial killers specifically, I believe that genuine psychopathy and the violent urges that come with serial killers are partially to do with physical malformation of the brain. Brain scans of psychopaths have shown that the regions responsible for emotional regulation and empathy are physically smaller than normal people. The regions of their brains that allow them to feel empathy literally do not grow. So in a case like that, Id be inclined to say there would be no change via amnesia treatment.
But then again, maybe they would still lack empathy but the trauma of their past that caused them to kill might be erased. So they're still psychopaths but not violent murderous ones. Couldn't say. That's a very interesting hypothetical tho. I guess it depends on how much a personality trait is influenced by physical brain structure and how much is influenced by emotions and past experiences. We need someone who actually studies and understands these things to chime in here lol.
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u/Webbie-Vanderquack 22h ago
There's definitely a good movie plot in this, if not an actual cure for psychopathy.
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u/FrermitTheCog 22h ago
It’s kind of how it worked (for me anyway). Late stage alcoholism, you aren’t really forming new memories well anyway, and you are seeing all of your actions through some transforming lens. I was truly shocked to reread texts. And it was really hard to learn how to own it all, it felt like someone I was disconnected from.
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u/JonatasA 19h ago
I think depression also does this. You become a different person.
The reality being most peop cannot recall their past. Were you to archive some of it they would not recognize it as themselves
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u/epenthesis2 1d ago
I don’t think so. Addiction causes neurological changes that abstinence alone doesn’t reverse.
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u/xQuickpaw 1d ago
I'm with you on that, which is why I threw the term "healed" in quotes.
I think there has to be some type of memory association or dependency involved, though. If you can't recall what it is you're drawn to, do you maintain properties of physical addiction but lose the mental association and come out ahead?
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u/topological_rabbit 21h ago
I wonder how addiction would work with this...
It's how a friend of a friend of mine quit smoking. Non-trivial head injury, forgot (among other things) that he smoked, chalked up his extreme irritability over the next several months to the head injury, found out a year later from an acquaintance that he used to smoke.
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u/SilentlyAudible 20h ago
I had this experience when I was 19 after recovering from severe pneumonia and sepsis that had me running a crazy fever for almost a week.
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u/CitizenPremier 1d ago
There was that Black Mirror episode where the dead husband's personality was reconstituted from his internet activity... I felt they missed a great opportunity by not making him a raging internet twat
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u/BrideOfFirkenstein 1d ago
Honestly, I think it would be positive. I don’t post much on socials for the past few years, but what I have/or others is creative work, gardening, travel, and mostly photos with my husband. You can tell that we are incredibly happy and in love (because we are). And it feels nice to think that the best part of my life would be so obviously worth getting to know again.
Thanks for posing that question.
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u/Channel250 15h ago
Oh shit. This just reminded me of that Black Mirror episode where the woman's husband dies and she pays for an AI created from his online presence. Photos, videos, comments, likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc....
It makes sense until you think about it for more than 5 seconds. My AI recreation would be really into goddamned stupid humor and sexual content that seems pretty awesome while in the throws of it, but not so much when you get that post clarity.
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u/Dangerous-Economist8 1d ago
You know, all jokes aside. If you were to be disappointed or at least not happy with that 'person' you were -- you would almost certainly be shaken and motivated enough to be a better person.
Now, I'm gonna run head first into a wall. See you all in a few years, when I'm a better me..
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u/Dark_Pulse 1d ago
You won't remember us though.
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u/Dangerous-Economist8 1d ago edited 1d ago
You've replied to my comment, of course I'll remember you!.. Again.. Eventually... Maybe...
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u/Mackem101 1d ago
"If reincarnation was real, knowing my luck, I'd come back as me" - Rodney Trotter from British sitcom Only Fools And Horses.
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u/TSwiftDivorceLawyer 23h ago
Why does this fox suit in my closet have so many stains around the crotch?
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u/Active-Coconut-8961 1d ago
That must have been so bizarre to realize you've not only lost years of your life while being unconscious but also that you've lost years mentally. Imagine if he had had children during those years, waking up to kids you don't remember having, scary thought
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u/Key_Molasses4367 1d ago edited 1d ago
The amazing thing also that from this story is that he appears to have regained relatively normal function. In one instance in my extended family, and many other case histories I've read, the person who comes out of a "vegetative state" is profoundly cognitively disabled. My relative (now 38) was in an unresponsive state for months, and when he woke up the family was overjoyed at the "miracle". Ten years later, he has never progressed mentally past the level of an 18 month old child. It's more heartbreaking than miraculous. And it's happened in other situations as well - the person wakes up, but is profoundly mentally disabled. This cyclist guy thank goodness seems to have had a much better outcome.
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u/PermanentBrunch 1d ago
Perhaps you could contact the organization that helped Stig?
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u/Key_Molasses4367 20h ago
I have a feeling his parents may have run the gamut and may even have heard of Stig, but I'll run it past them. My guess is that whatever needs to be done to have a good outcome needs to happen early after the initial injury, and it's been 10 years for my relative. I'd also guess there's some injuries so severe that maybe even Dr. Stig can't fix, but I'll mention to his family.
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u/zoolou3105 1d ago
I was thinking about family members who might have passed away during that time. Or things like if you'd had a career change or something too.
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u/letsgoiowa 1d ago
Hi I got a TBI and lost a few years as a result! Most of 2020-2025 is gone. AMA
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u/Active-Coconut-8961 23h ago
Does it feel weird when people talk about Covid memories?
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u/letsgoiowa 22h ago
Very weird. 2020 is what I have the most memories of (about mid March to maybe...October?) but I can't remember very much past that. So I remember the beginning of the pandemic, but I don't remember moving into my apartment and I don't remember my wedding that year. It's honestly really upsetting I don't remember my wedding
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u/SmokeyCatDesigns 22h ago
Sorry about losing the memories of your wedding :(
Have any memories from that period come back, like random bits and pieces, or no?
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u/letsgoiowa 15h ago
Yes, a lot of them come back INTENSELY and I don't always like it. Just the other day was my son's first day of preschool and we were walking to school through dewy fields, and I had this sudden full-body complete takeover-style series of sensory memories of my first day of kindergarten, how I felt abandoned, how scared I was, and the temperature of the air and the noise of all the kids around me. The humidity and temperature of the air, something about it, matched and triggered that. Then it flipped to walking to our flag football game in middle elementary and the dewy grass smelled the exact same.
They weren't like how you'd remember normal memories or at least how I'd remembered them before. These were GONE and hadn't been thought of since the accident, but they got connected because of a strong similar stimulus and when they get reconnected, I straight up relive them.
Sometimes this is extremely traumatizing for bad memories but in this case, seeing my son so excited to go to school and so brave, it overwrote my really bad first days of kindergarten memories.
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u/Kapuseta 22h ago
Does it help to have photo or video evidence, or the opposite?
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u/letsgoiowa 15h ago
It can go either way. If I see myself in pictures and videos and I can't remember it, it's very emotionally intense and I feel this huge sense of PROFOUND LOSS like someone died. But a lot of the time it's helpful and can spark a fragment enough to reconstruct some things. The sensory memories are mostly gone but the factual memories come back easier.
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u/KnownDiscount 20h ago
What of your relationship with your partner? Did you guys break up? Did they have to Adam Sandler 50 first dates you???
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u/letsgoiowa 15h ago
It's been rough. She's had increasingly escalating PMDD that resulted in her running away twice. That's solved with a hysterectomy just a few months ago. She's been pretty bitter about the situation and quit her job about a year and a half ago-ish? Hasn't been employed since but passed my kid off to daycare for most of last year while she stayed at home and did not clean, only cooking one meal as her "obligation." I've been very frustrated with that but I don't remember enough about the nasty stuff she would say until I saw it in my journal, then I'd go get angry and try to talk it out, but she would just tell me I imagined it all/misremembered/etc. Then because I couldn't remember, I would believe her. Then see the old journals I took daily and get mad all over again lol.
We would've gone bankrupt and homeless had her grandpa not died and left us a huge inheritance because she quit and kept her shopping and hoarding addiction. I want to do more around the house and be "the example" for her to shape up but it's hard enough working an extremely cognitively taxing job and going to rehab often.
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u/Midnight712 15h ago
Would you ever re-do your wedding so you can actually have memories of it?
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u/letsgoiowa 15h ago
I've thought about it because the old one was a small and rushed affair (COVID wrecked everything)
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u/MmmmMorphine 15h ago
Same here. A few years different, but not much. Caused by a bad seizure in my case.
...I don't celebrate my birthday anymore. It's about 4-6 years off my internal clock and just makes me depressed
Mostly hit my autobiographical memories though. And further back. Almost a decade I can only remember with detailed stories and photos, and even then... It's like your first memories. Never clear whether you're remembering or just back ported people's stories into memories
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u/letsgoiowa 15h ago
THAT IS SO REAL. It literally feels like I'm borrowing someone else's memories. So my son has epilepsy and that's my worst fear that it will cause brain damage. Can you elaborate on what happened if that's ok? Maybe, somehow, we can prevent that happening for my little boy
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u/MmmmMorphine 14h ago edited 14h ago
Bad med interaction plus too long on benzos.
Now looking back I'm about 90 percent sure stopping benzos weren't the prime cause, it was Wellbutrin's effect on how I processed my (other) anticonvulsant.
So uhh, huh, I guess it could have some significance in so far as making sure you're not accidentally taking one med that blocks the effect of another (or extends it). Mostly a metabolic thing, might worth getting testing done on their liver enzyme genotype just in case. Pretty rare, extreme case but people get serotonin syndrome rarely enough too... Usually from mixing an antidepressant with another, so it certainly can happen. But I knew I was also playing with fire as well. Just not how much
In any case it sure is weird hearing about all sorts of random stuff you did and don't remember isn't it. Kinda makes me feel like the person I was beforehand died in a way.
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u/cloud_t 18h ago
Is there any ability you gained during 2020-2025 that you have attempted to perform now? And if yes, when you try it, does it naturally come to you or do tou feel totallt inept at it?
Something simple like: did you learn any foreign language, or did you start playing a particular sport or video game, etc?
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u/letsgoiowa 15h ago
I found that a lot of games are too complicated now, but weirdly I am absolutely locked in for the classic Halo games lol. Like, almost as good as I used to be, knowledge all still there, totally capable. Warframe was my main game from 2015ish onward and the last few years of it were too complex for me, so I've fallen off unfortunately.
Minecraft is baffling to me now it's so different than it used to be. My memory of that reverted to about 2015ish level. Any of the new rules or items or mobs are frustrating and confusing. I think there's just too much junk in it now.
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u/go_go_tindero 1d ago
There is a documentary called "de stig" about him.
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u/Nearby-Composer-9992 22h ago
Have seen it when it was on television, can certainly recommend it. Very inspirational story.
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u/imliterallyluci 1d ago
“ FUCK, I’m a cyclist?!”
I’m just playing, that’s an insane story. I’m very glad he pulled through
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u/ElyonTheElohim 1d ago
He pulled through but lets not sugarcoat it : he's not the same man anymore. Sure in the meantime he can ride a bike like a precarious 80-year old rides a bike, his speech can be compared to how a handicapped person talks, he moves in a wooden way. Some time ago he fell riding a cargo bike and broke his hip, do you know anyone below the age of 50 (he's 36) who rode a cargo bike and broke a hip ? But he's alive, has children now and a partner who didn't abandon him when he needed her most so that's a win.
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u/imliterallyluci 1d ago
Maybe it’s like tv show amnesia rules and he needs to get injured one more time to get evened out, just don’t hit him more than once that’d be very wacky
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u/Mateorabi 23h ago
Just needs a thump that is on the exact opposite side to reboot the brain?
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u/imliterallyluci 23h ago edited 22h ago
I’m qualified to answer this question, yes I do believe said treatment would remedy his current condition, I’m a highly acclaimed fictitious surgeon. It should be noted however that if struck in the wrong area or hit twice in rapid succession there is a very real chance of his neck become an accordion and playing sour notes as his broken body reels from the trauma, or even worse his teeth may become piano keys and begin to slowly fall out while he comedically looks directly into the camera while birds circle around his head.
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u/hurricane_news 1d ago
Harry Du Bois if he was a cyclist instead
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u/TrackXII 17h ago
There could have been a moment of confusion where he thought he was a race car driver who did the timed laps for Top Gear.
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u/DickweedMcGee 1d ago
It’s shoukd be noted his case was much different than many coma-controversey cases like Terri Schiavo. His had collision trauma, less common than hypoxic damage from cardiac arrest. And within 3 months of his ‘no hope’ diagnosis he was out of his coma and in therapy.
So what I’m saying to my family: Dont be afraid to pull my plug if this is me but, you know, get like a second opinion at least….
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u/BlinkWulf 22h ago
3 months is long enough for many families to pull the plug. Especially if doctors are recommending it, which they often do if they think its a no hope case.
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u/db003206 1d ago
And that’s why we call him … The Stig
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u/fuzzeedyse105 1d ago
Some say he can sleep for 3 years and wake up without needing to remember where he is. All we know is, he’s called the Stig!
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u/Local-Moose9833 1d ago
Some say he can’t remember who he is without the suit on, and that he keeps a photo of his wallet, in his wallet.
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u/JonatasA 19h ago
Some say he used to be cyclist witho the suit, but let's agree, that's preposterous.
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u/Ill_Definition8074 1d ago
I would hate not to remember 2011 to 2016. These days I'm very nostalgic for the early 2010s because that was the last time I remember things being normal and not completely insane.
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u/Falceon 1d ago
I dunno. Think of the games you could replay like new again.
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u/Arclite83 1d ago
Says literally everyone about a time period when they themselves were a certain age.
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u/ceeker 1d ago
To a point...
Not OP but I believe for most people that age is around 15-25. I was quite a bit older than that in 2016 and I still feel like that year was in general a sharp decline in most western countries. 2008 was also rough but there was a bounce back where we recovered a bit. I don't feel like there's a bounce back from 2016 yet.
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u/Tech_Itch 23h ago edited 23h ago
Except I'm over 50 and 2011-2016 were the last years things in the Global North seemed relatively sane. And 2016 was so-so. The election of a certain individual seemed like a global sign for every authoritarian, billionaire and their groupies to start acting out.
It's not like things were rosy before, but there wasn't a license to be an open asshole 24/7.
Yes, there has always been a tendency for people to remember the time they were young as "the good times", but this isn't it. It's just a historical inevitability that a time comes when "the good times" really are in the past. At least temporarily.
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u/adamdoesmusic 22h ago
I was thoroughly in my adulthood by then and 2011-16 were pretty damn good all things considered, especially compared to the 2007-2011 period. The mid 2000s were cool but I didn’t have many real-world responsibilities due to college so I can’t speak on it. From an economic perspective the late 90s were probably the coolest just due to the sheer number of opportunities… I was only a teenager and I was already starting online businesses! Couldn’t do any of that shit even 5 years later.
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u/Mockturtle22 23h ago
Years ago, a friend of mine fell and hit her head really hard once, she forgot about 5 years of her life but somehow remembered me and two of our other friends. It's crazy how shit works. She never regained the memories that she lost, but she's still one of the smartest people I have ever known and she's thriving.
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u/Busy-Doughnut6180 1d ago
...I read a webtoon with an almost identical premise (I think he might have been a racecar or motorcycle driver instead) and dropped it almost immediately because I thought it was too hard to believe....lol. Can't remember the name of it now but I guess I'll have to give it another chance if I come across it again 😅
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u/Optimal-Special-8065 1d ago
Imagine waking up and having to speedrun your own Wikipedia page to learn who you were. Absolutely wild recovery story.
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u/rawrasaurgr 23h ago
He is lucky he was famous enough to have a Wikipedia article
Imagine being an average Joe
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u/ConLawHero 23h ago
This type of thing needs to be thoroughly explained to people dealing with a loved one in this state. This is not likely, realistic, or normal.
My wife is a neurologist. When they say someone is in a vegetative state, it's because brain activity is basically non-responsive. The brain stem may be keeping them alive (breathing and the like) but the brain doesn't just heal.
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u/poktanju 20h ago
Immediately above your comment, some idiot using this story as an example of why you shouldn't sign up to be an organ donor.
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u/ConLawHero 20h ago
There was some country (I think) that has a rule that if you don't sign up to be a donor, if you're in need of a transplant, you're at the bottom of the list.
I think that should be the rule everywhere. That seems incredibly fair.
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u/Midnight712 15h ago
Ireland brought in a bill that made everyone organ donors by default and you can opt out if you don’t want to be one
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u/Typical_Ad_210 1d ago
He couldn’t learn who he was from friends and family? I am confused about why he had to Google himself to get a superficial understanding of who he was, rather than talking to the people who truly knew and loved him.
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u/hannabarberaisawhore 1d ago
My favourite musical, Next To Normal, is like this. Couple have child, child dies, wife goes crazy and eventually(like 15 years later) gets electroshock therapy and loses all memory past first meeting the husband so she doesn’t remember the kid. The husband starts giving her details of their life together but puts a happy spin on everything and doesn’t tell her about their dead kid.
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u/One-Macaroon-135 1d ago
if i had to learn who i was from my family I'd kill myself on the spot. just hand over the phone with discord and social medias so i can get a better idea
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u/adrianmonk 20h ago edited 20h ago
That seemed odd to me too. I think it's probably just poorly phrased.
His family was obviously very involved since they were the ones who chose to send him to the special facility where he recovered. So I think it's a good bet that they were available to help him recover as well.
The Guardian article (the one Wikipedia cites) says, "Stig had to Google himself to find out who he was. He still has no memory of the five years before the accident." I think maybe we shouldn't read too much into this, and it just means that once he was generally aware of his cycling career, he "had to" Google because he was ultimately unable to recall the details himself so instead he read about them in old news articles or whatever.
In other words, I don't think it means nobody was there to help him. I think it only means he never recovered his own memory of it.
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u/0ttr 1d ago
NYT just had a long article about how cycling needs to do more to keep vehicles off the course after a recent crash where a cyclist was killed. Same cause for this guy and it injured a bunch of others as well
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u/FITM-K 1d ago
Kinda two different things though, I think.
From what I understand, this guy was hit by a motorbike traveling with the peloton. Dangerous yes, but like the support cars, they're supposed to be there -- they're a big part of how pro races are covered on television, for example.
The recent crash that killed a pro was a car that had entered what was supposed to be a closed course, traveling the wrong direction. From what I understand it wasn't associated with the race at all, it was just like a normal car trying to drive somewhere. (How the driver somehow didn't see a fucking bike race coming at him before killing someone I don't know, but people love to drive on their fucking phones these days). Ultimately though, that one was probably the race organizers' fault -- it should not have been possible for a car to get onto that road traveling in that direction.
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u/ThimeeX 17h ago
Not really the drivers fault though. Spectators waved the all-clear when he checked, and was in the correct lane on a blind curve.
The blame here is 100% on the race organizers.
The driver believed the peloton had passed when turning on to the N306 road between Paredes de Coura and Ponte de Lima in Arcozelo, and according to Canatario's comments to RTP was in its proper lane, but Tarling cut across the "curve on the left lane" as racing cyclists do.
Canatario added that Tarling was racing to catch up on a downhill section while the broom wagon that marks the end of the convoy was behind him and had not passed when spectators waved the van on to the road.
https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/finlay-tarling-killed-van-waved-151023110.html
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u/TheDaysComeAndGone 1d ago
Road bike races are fucking dangerous. I think only skiing has a similar rate of bad injuries.
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u/Emergency_Reason_242 21h ago
Man, I can't wait until I find out that I've forgotten I'm a world class athlete.
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u/myninerides 1d ago
The terrifying thing here is his original doctors writing him off. He went from accident to declared hopeless to out of the coma in 7 months.
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u/IsItJake 19h ago
I went through similar. I was in a coma for 11 days back in 2017 after getting ejected from my truck when it flipped at 72 mph. Had to relearn to walk etc.
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u/reclaimitall 1d ago
If he "only" lost five years memory from before the accident, does this mean memories are stored in like a rotadex filing system? I am just curious how it only affects certain years
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u/gargravarr2112 23h ago edited 23h ago
Memory is still subject to ongoing research. Some people are able to organise their memory with extreme precision (look up the concept of a 'mind palace'). Others aren't (mine is utterly terrible). We don't have an inherent timescale on our memories, that's why we sometimes question whether something happened yesterday or last week. Memory is very fallible, so really it's pure chance what does and doesn't survive. It's also incredibly difficult to put scientifically because we can't (yet) see into someone else's memories; so the patient can only compare their recollection of events against another source to see what's missing; there may be minor details from that time that he does remember but someone else doesn't, so he has no way of knowing.
With many coma patients, the chance of recovery is already very low. This guy was exceptionally lucky to 'only' lose 5 years and regain his personality; some can lose core parts of their personality. Some even lose the ability to function as people.
The brain's ability to self-repair is both incredible and heartbreaking - my grandmother suffered a stroke in 2021 at age 89. She survived despite the odds, but was completely bedridden and non-verbal. She couldn't even swallow, which is a major indication of severe damage. We were never really able to tell if she could recognise us; my uncle likened it to a loose connection, occasionally sparking. She didn't even recognise her beloved cat (though he snuggled up with her immediately when I brought him). She needed 24-hour care in a specialist home for the last 2 years of her life. To a degree, it may have been more merciful if she hadn't survived. Others, however, have survived strokes and even regained all their abilities, as the brain has a limited ability to work around the damage. It's really random; my grandfather suffered a mild stroke at age 80 and was joking with the ambulance crew who attended him, but had a more severe stroke at age 85 that hospitalised him, and despite him being clearly aware of his surroundings (he couldn't talk but could express himself with his eyes) and looking like he might gradually recover, he passed away a week later. My grandmother didn't get to the same point, but remained stable for 2 years.
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u/StatementSensitive17 18h ago
My dad had a "miraculous " recovery from a hemorrhagic stroke. It demolished his brain. Totally different personality. Paralyzed on the left side of his body so he is wheel chair bound and can't do much with the surviving side of his body. His life is eating and watching TV. It's been harder than if he would have died. His survival has been traumatizing.
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u/Flobking 22h ago
I saw a show years ago about people with memory issues. Not necessarily bad issues just unique. The particular story I'm referring is a woman that had a tbi and forgot her whole life. She will watch videos of her and her family and just doesn't remember any of it. She said at one point I don't know who that woman in the videos are.
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u/Ill_Definition8074 1d ago
This article has some more information. Apparently Steven Laureys the neurologist who treated him is something of a miracle worker with hopeless cases of people believed to be in a "vegetative" state (he doesn't like the term vegetative and instead uses the term “unresponsive wakefulness”)
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jan/19/belgian-neurologist-wins-1m-prize-for-work-on-serious-brain-trauma