By Sara James
NBC News correspondent
As a journalist, sometimes you wind up covering a story that hits home personally. For my family, Sam and Sally's story is like that. My husband Andrew and I have two wonderful girls. Our younger daughter, Jacqueline, has complex epilepsy and a developmental delay. Learning is harder for her, and we have had a lot of doctors and therapists and experts in our lives. I am always on the lookout for the latest research about the brain, and there are many exciting developments in the field. When I learned about Sally and Sam, and heard about Sam's remarkable reaction to Ambien, I couldn't wait to meet them.
Our 10-year-old daughter, Sophie, heard me talking about the story and was both intrigued and inspired. The night before I flew to Brisbane to interview this extraordinary couple, Sophie asked if she could videotape a message on my cell phone for me to take to the family.
Here are the responses from Sally, and from Sam's father, John.
Also, a few weeks after we met with Sam, he sent a special message to us and all of his supporters with an update on his recovery.
Leave a Comment:
This is a wonderful story and thank you Sara for going after it and sharing it in the light that you did. I'm also deeply impressed with the maturity and encouragement shared by your daughter Sophie, in her recording to the Goddard's. She is very wise in her years. And to the Goddards, your willingness to share and provide a window into your lives both in Sam's progress, and in sharing about the challenges and determination of Sally and the rest of the family show the truest form in human spirit and hope. Prayers of continued recovery and strength as you continue your path.
This is a beautiful story at Christmas time. I pray that you continue to recover. Thank you for sharing your story with everybody!
s
Sally, thank you to you and Sam for sharing your story and bringing awareness to recovery from brain injury.
I was forwarded your story several months ago, and tried to connect with you to say “Thank you” however did not get down to it. Last night when your story aired on NBC I was compelled to try again – so am happy I can leave a comment here.
My husband suffered cardiac arrest in May 2010, and as a result brain injury. For the past 19 months I have been trying to convince the medical community (here in Canada) that Leonard is very much in there and communicating with me, however that has been a challenge and I now know that someone else (you) understands how it feels trying to get them to believe!
Thank you for sharing your story of courage and determination, it has helped me and I will be taking your story to our physician in the hopes of getting Leonard the help he needs. We need more positive stories such as this one and more professionals to start to take this seriously, as our loved ones need “help” not a “permanently vegetative state” diagnosis!
I hope someday soon we will be able to share Leonard’s recovery with you, so that you will know how much of a difference you have made by sharing your story, for the courage you have and more importantly the love and determination you bring to this situation.
Sarah, Brian and NBC, thank you for bringing this story to us – you have just helped Leonard and our family, I am sure there are many other families out there too that have been helped. THANK YOU!
Winifred
Its a wonderful story and I`m also glad it hit prime time. There is along way to go with it though as too many people don`t have the chance to try this simple inexpensive pill. I`ve had the pleasure of seeing it work first hand, and its simply awesome to watch. The drawback on my son though was that he developed a tolerance to it and I can`t begin to tell you how much I miss its effects. He was not in a coma but his anoxic brain injury has left him severely disabled. It took time to realize that it was the ambien awaking him and during that time he was being heavily dosed with harder drugs to compensate for the not sleeping. When it hit me it was the ambien awaking him I was telling his Dr and therapist but they never really listened until I popped him one during therapy. Well I can only say it sure drew a crowd in that room and quick too. After that his Dr got him into the local hospital rehab for a trial of it. He would go from not being able to eat or talk to eating and chatting in about 10 minutes. I would literally have his food ready to go. With all the survivors of these devastating head injuries more needs to be done to get the word out and some real studies provided. Thanks again for airing it as I can`t think in my little world of being a caregiver a more important subject. Sharing this knowledge is important and I try to do my part. There are clips of its effects on you tube from me and many others, people just need to look. Someday hopefully, there will be more studies for the brain injured that as of now are mostly sent to disappear in some understaffed nursing facility. These patients need to be heard too, and without a decent chance will just be forgotten. For the new year lets all try to keep this clip, #45759385 alive, and moving along the www as much as possible.
Ruth
I saw this story on youtube (Australian Love story and other drugs) and this is by far the most inpirational story I have ever seen. Firt off, Sal....what an amazing woman she is. There are no words to express that kind of love. My fiance's step brother had an incident back in March and has been in the nursing home and in and out of the hopital. The doctors have said that he has complete brain damage. Since they have said that he has had several sessions in a hyperbaric chamber and has shown definite signs of brain activity. He is still quite a ways from how well Sam is doing but I think that if he was able to try this drug we may at least get a glimps into what may really be left in his head. To Sam, you are a true fighter!!!! God bles you and you continued progress!
Ruth, thank you for sharing with us. I would love to have the opportunity to learn more about the use of this medication with your son, and if you are ok to email me directly i would be ever so grateful.
if it means that together we can make a difference in our loved ones lives and lives of others who could benefit from it in the future, then this is our opportunity to raise awareness and try to help.
my husband moves his body to touch, so i know that there is something more we can do to help him. If Ambien helps him, then we have another positive story to share.
My email address: Lenwin1990@yahoo.ca
thank you
Winifred
winifred