My holy, holy Lord. I take this medication for a severe undiagnosed medical/chronic pain condition, but I never thought I would ever see/read an inspiring story of hope such as this. I sincerely hope this young man and all his friends/family make it through this.

It inspires me to keep on fighting even harder for my very life.

Hats off to Brian Williams for bringing this remarkable story into the spotlight at this most sacred time of the year.

God bless Sam Goddard and his fiancee for researching this life saving medication.

The brain shuts down the motor neurons when it is asleep - an act called REM atonia. REM atonia, if it persists on waking, causes sleep paralysis: "Have you ever woken up from sleep only to discover that you cannot move a muscle? With the exception of maybe your eyes and your breathing, you find yourself virtually frozen in bed." [quote from end-your-sleep-deprivation.com ].

It may be that some cases of locked-in-syndrome are a persistent form of a variation on sleep paralysis and REM atonia.

Abien's ability to facilitate sleep-walking like episodes may stem, in part, from an ability to inhibit REM atonia so the body can both move about and still be asleep.

Thus the relief may be due to a combination of Ambien's inhibition of REM atonia in cases of locked-in-syndrome caused by a mechanism similar to REM atonia sleep paralysis.

Locked-in-syndrome - where some brain function is detectable in an EEG - is different from a persistent-vegetative-state where brain function is absent. But it seems that many cases of locked-in-syndrome are mis-diagnosed as persistent-vegetative-state, and there is certainly a spectrum spanning the two disorders making precise diagnosis difficult or impossible.

The exact mechanism of REM atonia is still unknown as is the exact action of Ambien. The relationship of the two to locked-in-syndrome and persistent-vegetative-states must be, at this time, hypothesis and speculation.

Are you a Medical Doctor Sir?

I was wondering if Sam was checked for CPVT, to see if this is what caused his strokes.My son who was 14 at the time ,had a cardiac arrest in June 2011.He was down for awhile before his friends found him.He has suffered extensive brain damage from losing oxygen to his brain (anoxic brain damage).It took the doctors 3 months to find out what had caused his cardiac arrest and it ended up being diagnosed as CPVT,A mutation in the genes that can be triggered from some type of adrenaline rush.Mike still is unable to walk ,talk ,or communicate.He also has alot of muscle tone or tightness.He is able to hear and is still in a "vegatative state".I truly believe he understands and just cannot get it out.He moves his mouth ,but no words and very little sounds except for moans ,like Sam did.Right now we are at the Spaulding Rehabilitation in Boston.Mike also lost his vision,but does stare at the person speaking to him.He seems to be very alert..After watching this video it gives me some hope.It is very inspiring and now I just need the doctors here to look into it as i figure it is definately worth a shot..I'm just not sure they will try it if it is still in the trial stages..GREAT JOB SAM ,,KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK..BELIEVE!!!!!!!!

A personal message to SAM and SALLY.

Sam you have an amazing woman by your side, it is so rare for love like that. I wish you true happiness in your life, enjoy her!

Sally, you are simply amazing, your love, devotion, tenacity are not found often in this day and age, love enduring thru anything is what love is all about. I hope other women in the world are inspired by you, in this day of quick divorces....

you are both very blessed...

I had a stroke in 1999. The dentist extracted the mercury fillings and slowly but surely, I'm talking again. I couldn't speak or walk, a massive stroke, in 1999.

Sam is a young man, maybe it's the silver fillings? Can't hurt.

Read my website: www.strokesurvivorswithsavvyideas.com/ (Mercury fillings)

Thanks.

Sally,

I just wanted to tell you that you are amazing!! Simply an incredible story.

There have been numerous accounts in the past where coma/vegetative patients had to have a medical procedures and awoke after anesthesia. Yet, our wonderful insurance companies will not allow the simple procedure of being put under and brought back to see if it would "awaken them". There is a LOT more research that MUST be done in this area of REM sleep. Also, have people noticed that lately there have been a rise in number of people that had "flat-lined" brain waves and family had DR postpone in one case just one week to "pull plug" only to have patients "come-back". This just happened in Abilene, TX for a victim of ACU university bus crash, and another similar that was on national news. Nicolas-you are right on in your explanation!! I use to take Ambien to sleep as worked nights and was with a very stressful company that had a lot of postal shootings. I recalled being awoken when a sander I was using hit me-I was remodling in my sleep!(I had to change medicines.) Also the paralysis state of REM that you refer to is also "suspect" in some of the people that feel they experienced an "alien" abduct experience. You are indeed concious yet not able to do anything. Usually some people require someone to literally move them-they can communicate but not move. Also, last thought-in my past readings a subject that is uncomfortable to talk about for some-there have been evidence where they have had to move graves, etc and people find evidence that person that was buried apparently had scratched the lid of coffin in frantic. So question I have were these possible cases? My family is in the medical field-it is still amazing things they share from just their personal experiences. I think the quote "we've only just began!" in the knowledge of medical neuro research.

Here's an interesting article: (note that only a minority of patients reponded.)

"Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 2009 May;88(5):410-8.
Incidence of clinically significant responses to zolpidem among patients with disorders of consciousness: a preliminary placebo controlled trial.
Whyte J, Myers R.

Source

Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, 2nd Floor, West Building, 60 E. Township Line Road, Elkins Park, PA 19027, USA.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

The common hypnotic, zolpidem, has been reported to temporarily restore consciousness to individuals in the chronic vegetative state. In drug responders, repeated dosing appears to maintain consciousness. The frequency of such responses, however, is unknown and is important both to guide clinical use and to plan further research on the mechanisms underlying drug response. The objectives of this study were to obtain an estimate of the frequency of clinically significant responses among individuals with disorders of consciousness, to determine whether less obvious drug responses are present among "nonresponders," and to identify clinical features characteristic of zolpidem responders.

DESIGN:

Participants were individuals in the vegetative or minimally conscious state at least 1 month after brain injury. Each participant was studied individually in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design, once on zolpidem (10 mg per feeding tube) and once on placebo. Each assessment involved baseline administration of the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised, followed immediately by administration of the study drug, followed by 5 hourly readministrations of the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised. A replication pair of assessments was available for drug responders.

RESULTS:

: One of 15 participants (6.7%) demonstrated a clinically significant response, which altered his assessment from the vegetative state to the minimally conscious state, and this result was repeated in the replication assessment. The remaining 14 participants showed no evidence of a subclinical response to the drug.

CONCLUSION:

These results confirm that clinically significant responses to zolpidem among individuals with disorders of consciousness do occur in a minority of patients and can be replicated. Failure to find a trend toward improved performance on zolpidem among nonresponders suggests a bimodal rather than a graded response to the drug. The fact that only one drug responder was identified in this small study prevents assessment of features characteristic of drug responders."

Please note that the response was bimodal---it was a yes/no response, with only a minority being "yes."

if you are not a doctor,pharmacist or nurse or hold a phd...keep quiet.

Interesting story ...