Wake up thanks to ... sleeping pills!

Riaan Bolton has been stationary for the past three years. After a traffic accident, doctors said he could no longer see, hear or talk.

Yet when his mother dissolved a pill on a spoonful of water and poured it into his mouth, just half an hour later, as if there was an electric shock on his brain, Riaan rolled his eyes around his house in Kimberley Town (South Africa). then said: " Hello !"

Now, Louis Viljoen was able to smile when he received his mother's kiss (Photo: IOL) About 500km away, Louis Viljoen, a man who used to live a plant life, could smile and shake hands visitors. Across the ocean, in the United States, George Melendez, a brain-injured patient, had convulsed and groaned for years. He was also given this small pill and again, the unexpected thing happened. When his father asked if he felt pain, George smiled and replied " no ", and his whole family burst into tears.

All of the above cases had regained consciousness with just one sleeping pill. And the use of this miraculous small tablet is the result of an accidental discovery of a general practitioner.

It all began in 1994 when Louis Viljoen, then 24 years old, suffered a traffic accident that severely damaged his brain. At Ikaya Tinivorster Recovery Center, Dr. Wally Nel gave Louis a sedative for thinking that his body was uncomfortable. He prescribed Stilnox, the South African market name of Zolpidem (tranquilizer). Twenty-five minutes after drinking the diluent with water, Louis made a " hmm " sound and woke up and said, " Hi, Mom !"

Louis has been given Stilnox every day for seven years . Although the effects of the drug will gradually decline and disappear after more than two hours, but Louis's illness has many positive progress. Dr. Nel said since Louis's case, he has treated more than 150 patients with brain damage with Stilnox sleeping pills and about 60% have progressed well.

Dr. Ralf Clauss, a physicist at the South African University of Medicine and Pharmacy, contacted Dr. Nel and asked to check on Louis."Unbelievable results, I have to ask my colleagues to check it again" - Dr. Clauss said. "We scanned Louis's brain images before and after taking them. The" dead "areas are black on the brain before taking the pills to switch to light and work after having the medicine."

No one knows exactly how a sleeping pill can revive brain cells that seem dead . Dr. Nel and Dr. Clauss hypothesize that when the brain suffers a serious injury, a chemical called Gaba will stop all brain activity to store energy and help cells survive. It is possible that during this period, the receptors of the reactive brain cells before Gaba have changed or distorted themselves. Sedative drugs stimulate these receptors, causing them to react and break Gaba's control. Instead of causing the patient to sleep as usual, it makes the sleep areas of the brain work and causes some patients to regain consciousness.

In the next two months, there will be many trials conducted in South Africa to find out the correct developments in the effect of this drug, opening up hopes for patients living plants throughout the world. .

THANH TRUC