Buffalo, N.Y. – A brain-injured firefighter who stunned his family when he spoke after nearly a decade of silence died Tuesday. He was 44.
Donald Herbert was injured in December 1995, when the roof of a burning home collapsed on him. Deprived of oxygen for several minutes, he ended up blind, was largely mute and showed little awareness of his surroundings for years.
But on April 30, 2005, he shocked his family with a 14-hour talking jag. Since then, he had spoken only sporadically.
Herbert was hospitalized on Sunday and developed pneumonia and did not improve with antibiotics. His wife and four sons were with him when he died.
His breakthrough came three months after his doctor began giving him drugs normally used to treat Parkinson’s disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and depression. Dr. Jamil Ahmed said at the time that the medications had shown promise with more recently brain-damaged patients.
Until the weekend before his death, Herbert continued to interact and speak.
