Miracle Sleeping Pill Reverses Brain Injury Effects

18 Nov 2011: Sam Goddard and Sally Nielsen from Brisbane, QLD in Australia, who met in university, had their whole lives to look forward to. Sam was an accountant, and Sally, a wedding planner, both in their 20's they had planned to get married on their four year anniversary, on the 8th May 2010.

On Valentine's Day 2010, with less than 3 months to go until their big day, Sam was playing a charity game of soccer for his work. He headed the ball, scoring a goal, and then quickly began to feel very ill. He called Sally and told her that he wasn't feeling very well.

Sally arrived at the soccer field to find Sam violently vomiting and rocking back and forth repeating ‘my head's going to explode'. Sam was taken to Royal Brisbane Hospital, where he fell into a deep coma; he was rushed into ICU, where doctors held little hope for him.

After undergoing brain scans, it was understood that Sam had suffered two major strokes. Doctors don't know exactly what caused the strokes to occur, but highly doubt that head butting a soccer ball was to blame.

Sam remained in a coma so deep, and his brain appeared to be so badly damaged from the strokes, that doctors prepared the family for the worst. They said that he may not make it through, and if he did, he would not be able to ever walk again, or even breathe on his own. But Sam's loving fiancé Sally, and his supportive family refused to believe what they were told, and pledged to remain by his side, to help him recover.

Sam spent weeks in a coma, and when he emerged from it, he was barely responsive. Sally did notice that his heart and blood pressure monitor changed when she kissed him, so she remained hopeful. He was transferred out of ICU after spending 45 days there.

Doctor's wanted to send Sam to a nursing home to be cared for, but the family pushed to get him into a brain injury unit. With lots of rehabilitation, Sam showed a huge improvement. He began to walk and respond beyond the doctors expectations. His family became so excited, but then it just stopped, and he remained in the same state, without any further improvements.

After the family commenced a search on the internet for miracle cures or drug trials that could assist Sam, they stumbled across some findings that a GP in South Africa had made during the treatment of one of his patients who suffered from a brain injury.

Over ten years ago, Dr Wally Nel's patient needed some medication to help him sleep, and was prescribed Stilnox. When his family gave him a dose of the drug in the middle of the night, to stop him from groaning, within twenty minutes, he was miraculously able to verbally communicate with them more than ever since his brain injury. So Dr Wally now recommends Stilnox to other brain injury patients that he treats.

It took Australian doctors a long time to prescribe Stilnox to Sam as it is intended as a sleeping aid and is still an experimental treatment for brain injury patients. When they were finally granted approval to trial the drug, Sally administered 10ml into Sam's feeding tube. After a week of this and no noticeable reaction, Sally decided to up his dose to 15ml.

Within 20 minutes of taking the drug, Sally noticed Sam's face relaxing, his eyes becoming brighter, and he began to verbally communicate with her. Sally and the family were amazed at what they were seeing.

The effects of Stilnox only last an hour, upon which time, Sam's face begins to stiffen up again, his words start to become more slurred and he gets frightened as he realizes he is going back into his body, where he will be unable to communicate again, until his next dose.

Because Stilnox is still not approved as a brain injury treatment by many doctors, and the long term side-effects are yet to be revealed, Sam only receives one dose of it a day. But the family still remain hopeful that more will come out of this discovery, and Sam will one day return to the vibrant, energetic man he once was.

During his hour that he is able to verbally communicate with Sally, he tells her that he loves her so much and that he can't wait to marry her.

Sam's touching story was featured on Channel nine's 60 Minutes in Australia. To view it, click here: http