One weekend about 10 years ago, when she was a nurse at a hospital in Cologne, Bettina Sorger volunteered to help the intensive care unit staff. One of her patients was still recovering from anesthesia after a surgery in which doctors removed a brain tumor. He was not talking, and he did not seem to move much. While Sorger was making his bed, the man reached up and put his hands around her neck. Another nurse helped her break away from his grip. Sorger returned to business as usual; she was used to unusual behavior in patients still groggy from anesthesia. Surely the man did not know what he was doing. One week later Sorger ran into the same patient, who promptly apologized. She was shocked--she did not realize he had been aware of his actions, let alone that he remembered them and felt remorse. [More]














Source: New Brain-Machine Spelling Device Could Help the Paralyzed Communicate