The family of a firefighter who spent nearly a decade in a minimally conscious state before suddenly regaining lucidity captured the heart-wrenching moment he woke up on camera.
Donald Herbert was just 34 years old when his life changed forever after he was badly injured while responding to a house fire in Buffalo, New York, in December 1995.
The roof of the property collapsed on the father-of-four, pinning him under a pile of debris which nearly suffocated him.
He was deprived of oxygen for several minutes before he was rescued by his colleagues – but by the time his wife Linda arrived at the hospital, he was already in a coma.
Speaking to Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes in 2007, Don’s devastated spouse said: “I remember pleading and begging with him in the hospital when he was unresponsive.
“Don’t leave me, don’t leave the kids, we need you.”
One of their sons added: “You try to get them to squeeze your hand or move a toe or something like that…we were looking for just about anything.”
Donald Herbert was starved of oxygen after becoming trapped under debris while responding to a house fire (YouTube/60 Minutes)
Don eventually emerged from his coma around a year later, but experienced struggles with his speech, vision and mobility, while he was also unable to eat without assistance.
The New Yorker could barely remember anything and did not recognise his nearest and dearest – and within a few months, he had slipped into a minimally conscious state.
This means that Don – who was also left blind following the accident – was able to respond to stimuli and show some awareness, but was otherwise unable to communicate.
His family were forced to move the firefighter to a nursing home where he was being kept alive by a feeding tube and could receive constant care, while Linda was told by experts she ought to let go.
She told Cooper: “I took him to one neurologist and I was basically begging him, you know, to tell me, ‘Is he gonna 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.”
One of their son’s described how it made him ‘sick to his stomach’ to see his father in such dire straits, while another said they ‘never’ got used to his dad being minimally conscious.
His wife Linda and their four sons explained that they were unable to communicate with Don for nearly ten years (YouTube/60 Minutes)
Don remained this way for more than nine years – until he suddenly awoke at the nursing home on 30 April, 2005, asking where his family was.
His loved ones and former firefighter pals all rushed to the care facility, where a nurse then lent them a video camera to record footage of Don’s extraordinary ‘awakening’.
“How long have I been gone?”
The then-43-year-old struggled to utter his first words after not speaking for nearly ten years, while his vision issues meant he was forced to recognise his relatives and pals by their voices.
In the tear-jerking video, Don’s sons can be seen embracing their dad as he asked: “How long have I been gone?”
Obviously, a lot had changed in all of those years – including the height and maturity of his and Linda’s youngest son, Nick, who was only four-years-old when Don was first injured.
“He still thought that I was really young and he went to put his hand out over me to see how tall I was,” Nick said.
“We just kept telling him to raise his hand higher, because he was trying to feel for me down low.”
The firefighter finally woke up in 2005 (YouTube/60 Minutes)
“He felt like he abandoned us”
In another extremely emotional moment, Don then became visibly upset as he again asked how long he was ‘gone’ for, before sobbing when he finds out it had been nearly a decade.
“He felt so bad,” Linda explained. “He felt like he abandoned us, he felt so bad that he wasn’t there for the boys.”
Don’s uncle, Simon Manka, told AP news agency at the time that the firefighter was under the impression that he’d only been away for three months.
Medics around the world were left baffled by the patient’s miraculous recovery from a minimally conscious state, as experts explained it is almost unheard of for patients to recover from severe brain injuries like Don’s after so many years.
It is believed that Don’s awakening might have been a result of him being given a new cocktail of drugs which were normally used to treat Parkinson’s, ADHD and depression.
Tragically, despite his incredible comeback, the dad-of-four died the following year on 21 February, 2006.
Don had continued to wake up sporadically, but while attempting to get out of bed one day, he fell and suffered another brain injury.
The beloved firefighter then contracted pneumonia and passed away – less than a year after he woke up and reunited with his family.
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/60 Minutes
Topics: Health, Parenting, US News, Weird
Olivia Burke
Woman who was in coma for 30 days had incredible life-changing moment shortly after waking up
Victoria Cupay, from Illinois, spent 30 days in a medically induced coma
A woman who was fighting for her life in a coma for 30 days experienced an incredible moment shortly after waking up.
Victoria Cupay, from Illinois, US, was diagnosed with lupus and had a reaction to some medication she was given in 2019.
According to the NHS, lupus is an incurable, long-term health condition that causes joint pain, skin rashes and tiredness.
Severe cases of inflammation can be life-threatening, causing severe damage to the heart, lungs, brain or kidneys.
Victoria Cupay, from Illinois, spent 30 days in a medically induced coma in 2019 (TikTok/@justViktoria03)
For Victoria, her skin and organs began to deteriorate after the medication put her in a coma on 19 August, 2019, reports the Daily Mail.
“I went from taking no medications to taking more medications than my grandmother. It was such a big change, they told me that it’s incurable,” she told the outlet.
“No one in my family has it, so I didn’t really know what my life would look like.”
She was diagnosed with life-threatening skin disorders Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis, caused by the medication.
She woke up to the best news (TikTok/@justViktoria03)
Opening up about the day she was put in a coma, Victoria explained: “My mum brought me to the emergency room and everything just went downhill.
“I was put in an ICU Burn Unit. I’m not technically a burn victim, but what happened to me was I was burning inside out from inside out.
“What was happening on my skin, it was sloughing off. That was also happening in my intestines and other organs.”
Thankfully though, 30 days later she woke up from her coma to the best news.
Her boyfriend, Nick Baldo, was bedside with a diamond ring waiting for her.
“He actually asked my mum before he proposed, because that was one of my requests way before I got sick. He respected that wish,” Victoria recalled.
“He decided to do it then because I had a lot of close calls to death. And he said that if I don’t make it, I will at least have a good memory.”
The couple waited it out for three years to get married on 19 August, 2022.
This was so that Victoria could recover and let the Covid-19 pandemic pass.
After welcoming a baby boy this year, Victoria said she never thought it would be possible.
“Lupus patients are prone to miscarriages, and so it was a high-risk pregnancy. We wanted him for the longest time,” she added.
“He loves playing with books, and he loves steak and asparagus. He’s just a joy in life.”
Victoria now uses her social media channels to raise awareness about the condition and to share her inspiring story with others.
Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@justViktoria03
Topics: Health, US News
Anish Vij
Horrifying simulation shows what happened to man who got stuck behind a fridge for 10 years
His body was found in 2019 a whole decade after he went missing
In 2019, a team of workers were busy removing shelves and freezers from the closed down No Frills store in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
The supermarket had been shut down in 2016 and was finally being cleared out when the team found human remains wedged in a gap behind one of the fridges.
Thanks to DNA testing from his parents, the body was identified as belonging to Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada, a man who had gone missing in 2009.
That meant he’d been dead in the store for seven years, while it was still open, and a further three after it closed down for good.
Investigators found no signs of foul play or suspicious activity and deduced that Larry had slipped into the 18 inch gap between the fridge and the wall and become trapped there.
25-year-old Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada was thought to have fallen between the fridge and the wall and become trapped. (Council Bluffs Police Department)
His relatives reported him missing the day after Thanksgiving 2009, saying he left his parents’ house barefoot and hallucinating during a blizzard.
The clothing on the body matched the description given at the time of his disappearance.
Larry had worked at the store and former workers said it wasn’t unusual for employees to climb atop the units to stock them.
The fridge was about 12-feet tall and any of the 25-year-old’s attempts to shout for help would have been drowned out by the noise of the cooling unit. His death was ruled to be an accident.
A rather horrifying simulation of what happened to Larry lays out how awful it would have been for the 25-year-old to be stuck on the other side of a fridge with no way out and nobody hearing him.
Stuck Behind Fridge For Ten Years 😨
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Some were doubtful of the horrific story, wondering how people wouldn’t have smelled Larry’s body when he spent a whole decade trapped behind the fridge.
However, what happened to him is very much true and his body spent several years behind the fridge, while the store was still open and operating with people walking right by where he was.
That he wasn’t found for 10 years and his body was only discovered when the store was being cleared out indicates how hard it would have been to find him.
People getting stuck in places they then can’t get out of are sometimes said to have the ‘worst death imaginable’.
Some people who get trapped are fortunate enough to have a way of calling for help and are able to survive, but for Larry, nobody could hear him and nobody even knew that he was down there.
Featured Image Credit: Council Bluffs Police Department / X/@zackdfilms1
Topics: US News, Technology, Health, Weird
Joe Harker
Man who suffered from locked-in syndrome for 12 years describes moment he woke up and realised what was happening
Martin Pistorius might have finally felt like himself again after regaining consciousness, but he couldn’t communicate it to anyone
A man who spent more than a decade suffering from ‘locked-in syndrome’ while his mind regressed to the age of an infant has told how he felt ‘utterly powerless’ when he finally realised what was going on.
Despite defying the odds and the bleak prognosis doctors had given him, Martin Pistorius explained he was enveloped by sheer despair when he began regaining consciousness – as he was unable to tell anyone.
And tragically, he faced an extremely lengthy wait before anyone realised.
Martin, from Johannesburg, South Africa, was just 12 years old when his life changed forever after he came home from school one day in January 1988 while suffering from a sore throat.
As his condition continued to worsen, his parents rushed him to hospital where baffled medics tried to work out what was wrong with him.
Speaking to LADbible in April this year, Martin explained that doctors suspected he was suffering from cryptococcal meningitis and tuberculosis of the brain, so was treated for both – but these efforts were unsuccessful.
“My body weakened and I lost the ability to speak and control my movements,” he said, while explaining that he began to slip into a vegetative state which would end up lasting for four years.
Martin Pistorius spent his teenage years ‘locked in’ a coma (Supplied)
‘Utter powerlessness’
Doctors could still not determine the cause of the young lad’s condition and told his parents, Joan and Rodney, that he had no hope of survival.
His mum and dad were later informed that an unknown degenerative disease left him with the mind of a baby, wheelchair-bound and mute, while medics estimated he had less than two years to live.
Throughout his teenage years, Martin spent his days in a care centre while he would return to his family each night – and he described this dark period of his life as being like ‘an empty shell, unaware of anything around me’.
But four years after he first fell ill, there was an incredible breakthrough, which the South African says was the moment that he began to feel like himself again – which as you can imagine, was both thrilling and terrifying.
He explained: “I remember around my 16th birthday people talking about the stubble on my chin and wondering whether to shave me.
“It scared and confused me to listen to what was being said because, although I had no memories or sense of a past, I was sure I was a child and the voices were speaking about a soon-to-be man.
“I was able to hear, see and understand everything around me but I had absolutely no power or control over anything.
“For me, that feeling of complete and utter powerlessness is probably the worst feeling I have ever experienced, and I hope I never have to experience again.”
Sadly, nobody around Martin was able to realise he was conscious and they continued to assume he was still in a coma.
He began to regain consciousness when he turned 16 but couldn’t communicate this with anyone (Instagram/@martinpistorius)
Agonising wait
He would spend the next few years being shunted between his home and day-care centres, and he started to lose hope – fearing he would die alone in a care home without anybody realising he was conscious.
“What really got to me was the complete and utter powerlessness,” Martin explained.
“Every single aspect of your life is controlled and determined by someone else. They decide where you are, what you eat, whether you sit or lie down, in what position you lie in, everything.”
But in 2001, Martin met therapist Virna van der Walt at his day centre, who picked up on the ‘sparkle in his eye’ and sensed that her patient could understand a lot more than what other people thought.
She encouraged the then-25-year-old’s parents to take him to the Centre For Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) at the University Of Pretoria, who realised he had regained consciousness.
Martin described Virna as ‘the catalyst who changed everything’, while adding that he believes he would either be dead or ‘forgotten in a care home somewhere’ if it wasn’t for her.
He recalled how a researcher at CAAC held up a sheet of paper with symbols on it and he was asked to locate a ball with his eyes – and after finding that shape, he was then tasked with tracking down a dog.
This confirmed Virna’s suspicions that Martin was aware of what was going on, resulting in his parents purchasing him a computer that was preloaded with communication software so he could converse with them.
Martin is now happily married to his wife Joanna, who he shares son Sebastian with (Instagram/@martinpistorius)
Second chance
Martin would select letters, words or symbols on the device using a band attached to his head, which would act like a mouse, allowing him to finally regain his voice and his independence.
The medical marvel later started working with Virna at the care centre in 2003, before meeting his wife Joanna and emigrating to the UK – where the pair got hitched to in Essex in 2009.
Martin wrote a book about his harrowing experience, titled Ghost Boy, as well as later hosting a TED Talk in 2015 titled: “How my mind came back to life – and no one knew.”
He went on to welcome a son, Sebastian Albert Pistorius, in 2018 with social worker Joanna and has continued to come on leaps and bounds ever since.
Updating his followers on his progress in an Instagram post, Martin explained: “Since 2010 I have: graduated with a first class honours degree in computer science, learnt to drive, publish my book (Ghost Boy), given a TED Talk, started wheelchair racing, set a European record, been awarded a Doctorate, travelled far and wide, and become a father.
“I am intensely grateful to the people who have passed through my life, and those who remain part of it, especially my wife. For without them and the grace of God, none of this would have been possible.”
These days, Martin is a computer scientist and web developer – with a kick ass life story which should serve as a reminder to us all to not take anything, especially our voices and independence, for granted.
Featured Image Credit: Supplied
Topics: Health, World News, News, Technology, Mental Health
Olivia Burke
Tragic story of woman who died with skin attached to her sofa after sitting in it for six years
The woman from Florida died in hospital after her skin was attached to her couch
A Florida woman who spent six years on her sofa died with her skin attached to it.
Gayle Laverne Grinds, 39, initially suffered a broken leg in the 90s.
Standing at just 4′ 10″, the unlucky lady then broke her leg again, shortly after the first fracture healed.
The second leg break reportedly impacted her mental health, and Grinds thought by staying put on the sofa, it would save her from further injury.
To the shock of her long-term partner, Herman Thomas, the woman never got off the sofa in her apartment – located in Golden Gate, south of Stuart – again.
An unverified picture of a woman thought to be Gayle Grinds (History Flix)
After years of sitting, she became morbidly obese, weighing in at 34 st.
Six years on, her skin began to stick to the fabric of the sofa, and it hasn’t really been officially verified how.
“I tried to take care of her the best I could,” her partner Thomas, 54, said at the time.
“I wish I could have pulled her off the couch, but she wouldn’t let me.”
Grinds reportedly wasn’t even able to get off to go the bathroom, and eventually her family members called emergency services when she had trouble with her breathing.
12 firefighters reportedly turned up to the property, along with a custom-built wooden stretcher to lift her and the couch out of the apartment.
“We couldn’t get her in the ambulance,” Martin County Fire-Rescue District Chief, Jim Loffredo, said.
Rescue staff had no other option but to use a trailer attached to a pick-up truck to get her to the hospital.
A newspaper clipping from that time (Historic Flix)
Grinds reportedly died at 3:12 am local time, still attached to the couch, according to officials.
Martin County Sheriff’s Sergeant, Jenell Atlas, added: “We are used to going to people’s houses when things are at their worst… and that’s fine, we’re trained for it.
“But there is no warning for something like this.”
Jerry Thomas, who lived across the street for six years, said: “All we knew was the old man lived there.
“I had no idea a woman ever lived in that house. Apparently she’d been on that couch a long time.”
Grinds was said to have cared for a young niece and nephew after the death of her sister in 1992, but we haven’t heard from them since.
Family members were reportedly very upset by the situation.
Featured Image Credit: History Flix/YouTube