On June 3, 2003, Dan Mountain's wife discovered him unconscious on the floor.
The staff called in the neurosurgery specialist.
"They didn't even know if he'd survive the surgery," said Dorothy.
Dan survived, but three weeks later it appeared he would never wake.
Finally, Dan's wife decided to end the life support. Then amazingly, he woke up.next.............
THE paintings on broken plates that made Julian Schnabel an art-world star in the early 1980s seemed to announce their importance not just by their retrograde swagger but also by their sheer weight. Hanging one on a wall was like suspending a cabinet full of Buffalo china.
The other day in a former smelting factory near the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn a bunch of new paintings that he had hanging on the walls seemed by contrast to be almost weightless, looking as if skeins of smoke had settled on the canvas. But they were actually digitally printed blow-ups of antique French hospital X-rays that he had come across last year in northern Normandy. And as such they were pieces not simply of art but of argument, Mr. Schnabel’s pointed way of saying that while his life as a filmmaker may be threatening to eclipse his life as a painter, he still has his palette firmly in hand.
He found the X-rays in a building near the naval hospital at Berck-sur-Mer on the Normandy coast, where he had just finished directing “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” his movie based on the best-selling memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby, the former editor in chief of Elle magazine in France. In 1995 Mr. Bauby suffered a stroke that left him with a condition called locked-in syndrome, conscious but paralyzed, with only his left eye remaining functional, and he composed the memoir painstakingly by blinking that eye to select letters on a chart.
The movie, which will open Nov. 30 in New York and Los Angeles, has proved to be a kind of hat trick for Mr. Schnabel, whose first film, “Basquiat” in 1996, got a respectable reception considering his inexperience and his share of detractors in the art world, where it was set. His second movie, “Before Night Falls” in 2000, about the gay Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, established him solidly as a filmmaker, earning an Oscar nomination for its star, Javier Bardem. And “The Diving Bell” has been even more widely praised in the early going, winning Mr. Schnabel the best director award at the Cannes Film Festival and fueling Oscar dreams on the part of Miramax, its American distributor.
The only problem with this track record, of course, is that it has a lot of people describing Mr. Schnabel as a director who paints, and not the other way around. This development does not always sit well with a man who has made thousands of paintings — and millions of dollars from them — over the last 30 years and who once declared that he was the “closest you’ll get to Picasso in this life.” Next....
We at the Kessler Medical Rehabilitation Research and Education Corporation’s (KMRREC) Stroke Lab invite you to find out more about the current research done at the KMRREC Stroke Laboratory by clicking on any of the following areas: space, speech and language, strategies for memory, skilled movement, staff, success, faq
A tall, lean muscular man, Doug Gillis appears to be the example of perfect health.
Gillis also owns Gillis Softball Academy, a successful business in Wixom where he's comfortable talking before large groups of youth and giving them pointers about the sport he loves. 
Besides an irregular heartbeat, the 42-year-old Brighton Township man never gave much thought to health issues, and didn't think he ever would until June 24, 2006.
"The mountains," wrote climbing enthusiast Sir Francis Younghusband, "reserve their choice gifts for those who stand upon their summits." Yet those who earn these gifts pay a unique price. As neuroscientist and weekend climber R. Douglas Fields relates below, a recent study used brain scans to examine both the effects that both one-time and cumulative high-altitude climbing have on the human brain. The findings are not elevating for those of us who love to climb.
"Mount Everest is very easy to climb, only just a little too high." - The Observer, Jan 25, 1953.
Oliver Wolf Sacks (born July 9, 1933, London), is a United States-based British neurologist, who has written popular books about his patients; the most famous of which is Awakenings, which was adapted into a film starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.
Sacks considers that his literary style follows the tradition of 19th-century "clinical anecdotes", a literary-style that included informal case histories, following the writings of Alexander Luria.[1] Sacks is a childhood friend of Jonathan Miller[2] and a cousin of Robert Aumann and the late Abba Eban.[3]
In 2007,[4] Columbia University appointed Sacks as "its first Columbia artist, a newly created designation." next....
Lynn Johnston, creator of For Better or For Worse, will be presented a 2007 Media Award by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association bringing attention to “Aphasia” a disorder often brought out as a result of a stroke or brain injury. In her comic feature, the grandfather character struggles to regain his speech after a stroke. The plot-line demonstrates the difficulties not only for the individual, but also the family and caregiver.
Joseph Chaikin (September 16, 1935–June 22, 2003) was an American theatre director, teacher and playwright. He suffered from heart complications as a child, and was sent to a children's hospital in Florida the age of five. It was during this period of isolation that he began to experiment in the theatre.
He briefly attended Drake University in Iowa, and then went on to work with The Living Theatre before founding The Open Theater an experimental theatre co-operative that progressed from being a closed laboratory to performing devised work to an audience. In 1970 they performed Endgame by Samuel Beckett, with Chaikin playing the role of Hamm, at the Grasslands Penitentiary, a fulfillment of his desire to experiment with audiences who would be fundamentally different to the ones they were playing for. In 1970- 71 they performed Terminal by Susan Yankovitz in many maximum and minimum security prisons on the East Coast of the USA and Canada. The Open Theater ran for about ten years. Chaikin wound the company up to avoid its institutionalising, since it achieved critical success, something which he spurned saying, "I have rarely known a case where a critic's response to actors, directors or writers has expanded or encouraged their talent- I have known cases where by panning or praising, the critic has crushed or discouraged creative inspiration".
He then formed a company called The Winter Project, whose members included Ronnie Gilbert and Will Patton. Chaikin had a close working relationship with Sam Shepard and together they wrote the plays Tongues and Savage/Love, both of which premiered at San Francisco's Magic Theatre. They were commissioned to write When The World Was Green for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Beyond performing in his plays, Chaikin was an expert on Samuel Beckett, directing a number of his plays including Endgame at the Manhattan Theatre Club. Beckett wrote a poem for Chaikin entitled What Is the Word?. He received six Obie Awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement, and two Guggenheim Fellowships.
In 1984, a stroke suffered during open-heart surgery left Chaikin with partial aphasia. Despite this barrier to communication, Chaikin continued to direct and to create plays collaboratively with other writers, including John Belluso, whose disability-themed plays were produced at the Mark Taper Forum, Trinity Rep, Pacific Repertory Theatre and the New York Shakespeare Festival. Chaikin was also a lifelong teacher of acting and directing, and lived in New York's West Village until his death.
In 1972 his book, "The Presence of The Actor" was first published with a second edition in 1991 published by Theatre Communications Group. It includes exemplar notes, photographs and exercises from several Open Theatre productions as well as presenting Chaikin's philosophy on how theatre can bring about social transformation.
Chaikin was born and died in New York City. His son, Mauricio, now resides in Deer Park, New York.
This view now faces many rivals. The big-bang theory has been countered by linguists who believe that just as the eye evolved to meet a need for vision, language evolved to meet the need for communication. Ms. Kenneally ushers onto the stage researchers who have discovered that many animal species possess languagelike skills previously unimagined and, without benefit of syntax or words, have a complicated inner life. They believe that the study of animal language and gestures could shed light on a possible protolanguage stage in human development.
Koko, a gorilla with a vocabulary.
" After a stroke, a prolific novelist struggles to say how the mental world of aphasia looks and feels. [Via ectoplasmosis.]
Exactly the same thing happened to me. Apart from the bit about being a famous writer & poet.
This is a great link, and very sad. My great-grandmother had aphasia after several strokes and it was so hard to see her frustration when she struggled to say something and could only produce random syllables.
velvetrabbit's link about Edwyn Collins from earlier this week is interesting in this context.
Great link and inspiring story.
He sounds like someone interesting to talk to, and the process of his writing while coping with aphasia is compelling, but I just couldn't get into his new writing.
All of his writing can be fairly opaque.
« Older It's the weekend, whattya want? | YouTube has a new (old)What an absolutely riveting read!
I'm also reminded of my grandmother - she was in and out of it at the end. In one of her lucid moments she found out that my no-good cousin was in jail and insisted on dictating a letter to him. It read much like West's aphasic memoir.
 |  aelfgyfu_mead2007-08-18 03:09 pm UTC (link) |
| That's a fascinating piece, and I find it ultimately very encouraging. I hope one doesn't have to be a novelist to work through aphasia! I think there may be hope for those of us who talk and blog almost incessantly (like me!). |
We know now that Ravel first began to show signs of neurological problems in 1927, and over the next several years, he experienced progressive muscle problems and aphasia, or the inability to speak. Neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin has written that Ravel suffered brain damage that impaired his ability to hear pitch*. He began to show signs of dementia, worsened by a car crash he suffered in 1932. Over the next few years, he became unable to understand the written word, and he lost all ability to communicate through speech or writing. Finally, after an unsuccessful brain operation, he died in Paris on December 28, 1937, one week prior to my six-month birthday.
*Interested in the neurological and psychological aspects of music and composers? Check out This is your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin.
Posted on: July 16, 2007 9:22 PM, by Mo
In 1859, Broca founded the Societe d'Anthropologie de Paris. Two years later, several heated debates had arisen there: one was about the relationship between brain size, race and intelligence, and the other about the localization of cerebral function. In the latter, one of the main proponents of the localization theory was Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828), the founder of phrenology. Gall and others believed that the faculty of articulate speech resided in the anterior lobes of the brain, but most members of the scientific community were cautious; some argued that Phineas Gage provided strong evidence against the theory that speech was localized to the anterior lobes. Gage, a railroad worker, had suffered severe frontal lobe damage in 1848 when a tamping iron was propelled through his skull, but had retained his ability to speak after the injury.
This 59 year-old female patient presented with acute right hemiplegia, aphasia and confusion. She had a known cerebral melanoma metastasis in the left frontal lobe. This axial T2-weighted MR (click image for arrows) shows a large haematoma with a fluid-fluid level (green arrows). There is a smaller low signal area anteriorly (red arrows) which corresponded to the known metastasis. This smaller area enhanced after gadolinium, as did the overlying dura.
Melanoma metastases may be hyperintense on T1W images and demonstrate signal loss on T2 or T2* sequences. This is due to the presence of both melanin and blood products. Melanoma metastases are 5 times more likely to show signal loss on T2* images than lung metastases, and 4.5 times more likely to be T1 hyperintense. T1 hyperintensity correlates with melanin content better than does T2* signal loss. T2* imaging (or susceptibility-weighted imaging) may be useful in screening for melanoma metastases as lesions are more conspicuous.
Reference: Gaviani P, et al. Improved Detection of Metastatic Melanoma by T2*-Weighted Imaging. American Journal of Neuroradiology 27:605-608, March 2006
Credit: Dr Laughlin DawesArgye E. Hillis, MD
From the Departments of Neurology and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Argye E. Hillis, Department of Neurology, Phipps 126, Johns Hopkins Hospital, 600 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287 argye@JHMI.edu
In the last 25 years, characterization of aphasia has shifted from descriptions of the language tasks that are impaired by brain damage to identification of the disrupted cognitive processes underlying language. At the same time advances in technology, including functional imaging, electrophysiologic studies, perfusion imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, and transcranial magnetic stimulation, have led to new insights regarding the relationships between language and the brain. These insights, together with computational models of language processes, converge on the view that a given language task relies on a complex set of cognitive processes and representations carried out by an intricate network of neural regions working together. Recovery from aphasia depends on restoration of tissue function or reorganization of the cognitive/neural network underlying language, which can be facilitated by a number of diverse interventions. The original research by the author reported in this article was supported by NIH R01 DC05375.
Good Things Happening
At age 52, Johan de Roos was a picture of health last year: no high blood pressure, no signs of heart disease and a comfortable cholesterol level.
Then came a stroke and what followed was a diagnosis of aphasia, a disease neither he nor his wife, Susan, knew much about.
Aphasia, they learned, is caused by a stroke or traumatic brain injury. It damages the ability to speak and understand others, and causes difficulty with reading, writing and numbers.The Evendale couple started an Aphasia Support Center project that has been selected as one of three from Cincinnati to make the top 50 list of the American Express Members Project, putting it in line for several million dollars.
Other local projects in the top 50 list: 50,000 Families up From Poverty and Children's Safe Drinking Water.
Susan de Roos said for years people with aphasia were given little hope for improvement beyond the first three months.
"Now we know that with continued therapy, improvement is possible," said Susan de Roos, a retired manager at General Electric, Evendale.
She said the Aphasia Support Center would provide group therapy, group activities, computer aided therapy, caregiver support and community outreach.
The 50,000 Families up From Poverty group aims to provide water to communities in India, Africa and other impoverished areas worldwide by drilling tube wells wherever needed.
The Children's Safe Drinking Water project aims to address this issue through an innovative and low-cost technology that effectively purifies and cleans water while removing bacteria, viruses and parasites.
American Express sponsors the program. Card members and the Members Project Advisory panel selected the final 50 projects from 7,000 ideas submitted.
Ideas included community-based projects throughout the United States and international aid projects in Africa and Asia.
In the next phase, cardholders will register and vote for a favorite project.
"We are encouraging all card members to make their voices heard by voting for the idea they want American Express to make a reality," said Jud Linville, president and chief executive officer of U.S. Consumer Business at American Express. "The power is in their hands."
To vote, log on to www.membersproject.com. Card members can register to vote through Aug. 5.
BIG DONORS TO UNITED WAY
Two local couples have joined 12 other couples, individuals and organizations in the United Way of Greater Cincinnati's Million Dollar Roundtable.
They are Stanley M. Chesley and his wife, Susan J. Dlott; and Jack Gluckman and his wife, Victoria Buyniski Gluckman.
Chesley, an attorney, is president of Waite, Schneider, Bayless and Chesley. His wife, Susan, is a U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of Ohio.
Jack Gluckman is professor of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery, at the University of Cincinnati.
Victoria Gluckman is founder and CEO of United Medical Resources Inc.
FORMER Prime Minister Tony Blair has no doubt left a lasting legacy during a decade in the hot seat.
Mr Blair has made tough decisions during his three terms in office and chaired challenging Cabinet meetings.
His work included the controversial decision to go to war in Iraq, constitutional reforms for Scotland and Wales, and a raft of domestic policies.
Now a Furness charity worker has had a glimpse of what it’s like being in Mr Blair’s shoes.
Retired Ulverston shopkeeper Christine Adams felt like she was PM for a day when she sat in the hot seat occupied by Mr Blair.
Mrs Adams, from Birkett Drive, also got the chance to meet Cherie Blair, wife of the Prime Minister, two weeks before her husband handed over the reins of power to Gordon Brown.
The 67-year-old grandmother is a member of a local branch of Speakability, a self help charity group which covers South Lakes, and is based in Kendal.
Speakability is involved with helping the quarter of a million people in the UK who suffer from “aphasia”, a condition which affects victims of strokes, head injuries or other neurological conditions.
And Mrs Adams was one of two members of the group lucky enough to go No 10 and raise the profile of Speakability with Cherie Blair.
Mrs Adams said: “Although we meet in Kendal we have members from all over the South Lakes. In fact our chairman, Fred Hammond, lives in Flass Lane, Barrow, and I live on Birkett Drive, in Ulverston.
“It was my speech therapist who put me in touch with them, when I had a brain aneurism and it was such a help to me I have stayed with them.
“Speakability relies on donations and we had collections in Booths’ supermarket in Windermere and Morrisons’ store in Kendal where we raised over a thousand pounds.
“Janet Rockliffe, the branch secretary, and I were lucky enough to be chosen to visit No 10 Downing Street. Names were drawn out of a hat and 45 people, including myself, were chosen.
“We were first taken through the main gate, where we had to go through security and were allowed to take photographs outside No 10. We went in three at a time to meet Cherie Blair and Lady Wilson, Harold Wilson’s widow, Mary. Cherie spoke to each of us and she was very nice. She was especially interested in Speakability as Tony’s father has aphasia and Tony is a vice-president of the charity. Cherie then came in and addressed everyone.
“We were able to look around the rooms, the dining room and the Cabinet Office where I sat in Tony Blair’s chair, and for a couple of minutes thought I was the Prime Minister!”
* Cherie Blair is featured on The Real Cherie Blair, on BBC One at 9pm tonight.
FORMER Prime Minister Tony Blair has no doubt left a lasting legacy during a decade in the hot seat.
Mr Blair has made tough decisions during his three terms in office and chaired challenging Cabinet meetings.
His work included the controversial decision to go to war in Iraq, constitutional reforms for Scotland and Wales, and a raft of domestic policies.
Now a Furness charity worker has had a glimpse of what it’s like being in Mr Blair’s shoes.
Retired Ulverston shopkeeper Christine Adams felt like she was PM for a day when she sat in the hot seat occupied by Mr Blair.
Mrs Adams, from Birkett Drive, also got the chance to meet Cherie Blair, wife of the Prime Minister, two weeks before her husband handed over the reins of power to Gordon Brown.
The 67-year-old grandmother is a member of a local branch of Speakability, a self help charity group which covers South Lakes, and is based in Kendal.
Speakability is involved with helping the quarter of a million people in the UK who suffer from “aphasia”, a condition which affects victims of strokes, head injuries or other neurological conditions.
And Mrs Adams was one of two members of the group lucky enough to go No 10 and raise the profile of Speakability with Cherie Blair.
Mrs Adams said: “Although we meet in Kendal we have members from all over the South Lakes. In fact our chairman, Fred Hammond, lives in Flass Lane, Barrow, and I live on Birkett Drive, in Ulverston.
“It was my speech therapist who put me in touch with them, when I had a brain aneurism and it was such a help to me I have stayed with them.
“Speakability relies on donations and we had collections in Booths’ supermarket in Windermere and Morrisons’ store in Kendal where we raised over a thousand pounds.
“Janet Rockliffe, the branch secretary, and I were lucky enough to be chosen to visit No 10 Downing Street. Names were drawn out of a hat and 45 people, including myself, were chosen.
“We were first taken through the main gate, where we had to go through security and were allowed to take photographs outside No 10. We went in three at a time to meet Cherie Blair and Lady Wilson, Harold Wilson’s widow, Mary. Cherie spoke to each of us and she was very nice. She was especially interested in Speakability as Tony’s father has aphasia and Tony is a vice-president of the charity. Cherie then came in and addressed everyone.
“We were able to look around the rooms, the dining room and the Cabinet Office where I sat in Tony Blair’s chair, and for a couple of minutes thought I was the Prime Minister!”
* Cherie Blair is featured on The Real Cherie Blair, on BBC One at 9pm tonight.
She had been an english teacher.
posted by miss lynnster at 4:18 PM on August 17 [3 favorites]