Regeneration of the Mind

Coffee aroma, heavenly scent feather tickled my nose, eyes opening to greet the cup of coffee, not there! That was 7-years, 2-months, and 16-days ago per, this writing, when awakening from 4-days in coma following, Severe Traumatic Brain Injury (Horse accident).

Total memory loss, unaware of surroundings, the journey back to near normal life owed in most part to my "Angel" wife! Long term memory as an electronic engineer is intact possibly even better however, short term memory kicks me in the posterior each day robbing me, of simple items most other people take for granted such as, tieing shoes, color of socks in trying to match, making change in the store, and more.

Therefore, I have something to say regarding the article I just read, "Regeneration of the mind." It would not be anything "Good," to subject any Brain Injured person to further "HELL" in any attempt to recover what is imagined by healers to be lost! Speaking from experience of Brain Injury, only "Natural Recovery" and "Love" by those concerned (Family, Friends), in my case "Puppies, also!"

Animals have greater understanding and ready love for those, of people with injuries, than humans whom seem awkward in supplying! My Puppy is there for me at all time, comforting beyond words can ever express!

Simply, I am against Stem Cell Research especially, in the Fantasy "Regeneration of the Mind!" The Quality of any life is far greater, than Quantity of life! "Suffer not!" Every day, is the today life we live, smile, and laugh, at the mistakes of days gone! Quality!

67-years, and holding, by the Grace of GOD!

Ron G

I have a question about your condition/predicament?

When you lost your sense of smell was it complete and total, or do you have some smells that you can still smell?

Initially, following my injury, all memory was basically gone. The sense, or smell of coffee aroma is how I awoke from coma in Intensive Care.

Other senses came into order such as, fever like freezing touch of the cover sheet, pain from sharp thorn (needle taped in arm) which, I pulled out.

Total memory loss of who I was, where, why, just an array of senses trying to cope with pain. These are memories retrospectively related, now that I have come quite far from being injured.

In hope that answers your question, and will be happy to answer more questions.

Ron G.

Thanks;

It's rare to find anyone that came out of a coma, and still able to recall what brought them out of it.

Did anyone do an MRI after you were alert?

A quick response to Adaminchains question about head injury and the sense of smell. I am capable of smelling only certain smells, there are a lot of things I can't pick up on the smell anymore since the accident.

Thank you to posting!

As far as this article goes I understand your feelings, however I myself had traumatic head injury back in Fall 2005 that kept me in the hospital for 23 days and I believe that research in this could be helpful.

Your right, help from loved ones can help you recover, but this is only to a certain extent. I was a very lucky person and I thank the medical staff and my friends and family who helped me through my accident.

However, I have seen people who have gone through traumatic brain injuries who don't recover. These people often have a hard time with their memory but also with other functions such as sight, movement, smell, etc. I don't remember my stay in the hospital or my accident but I do remember leaving and coming back to volunteer and seeing these people. In seeing the people and their situations I am looking to do research in this along with many other areas once I have my degree.

Thanks for posting this, shanlax. Like many people, I only knew about "stem cells" in the context of embryonic or fetal tissue.

Shanlax,

Thank you for a most informative posting. I do feel, however, the need to clarify one point. At this point in time, adult stem cells are not substitutes for embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cells are quite effective in the treatment of a few diseases (somewhere between 4 and 20 depending on how many different kinds of leukemia you include). The great limitation on adult stem cells is that they have not yet been completely differentiated. Research is promising, especially with mesenchymal stem cells, but this is, I think, only beginning to come into clinical trials. My knowledge is largely limited to the US and Western Europe, so I may be behind.

Embryonic stem cells are not currently effective for treating disease (nobody knows how to control them very well), but they are extremely good for research. The ethical problem is great, but, to paraphrase Thomas Merton, every time I fill my car's gas tank, I kill a child in the underdeveloped world, and I live with that. It may be good religion, but it is simply bad science to say we don't need embryonic stem cells at this time.

Tom