Coma victim wakes up after eight years after doctors give him a sleeping pill
sleeping pill.Scientists have revealed the 37-year-old, known as Richard, regained full consciousness, recognised his family and asked to speak to his father when doctors gave him the simple medication.Richard even managed to get out of his wheelchair and walk for the first time in nearly a decade.Choking on a piece of meat has caused him to be hospitalised in his late 20s due to a serious lack of oxygen.The incident left him with severe brain damage and akinetic mutism, a rare mental state where people cannot speak, eat or move, but can still open their eyes.Doctors discovered that sleeping pills could help people with certain types of brain damage regain their speech and movement - but only temporarily.Doctoral student Willemijn van Erp