The Blog

In the past months we have shared in this blog our findings concerning the different stages following a comatose state and the level of awareness that a patient can experience. Today we want to share with you a message of hope, presenting three remarkable stories of people fully recovering their abilities after a long-term unconscious states and very low recovery expectations.

Sam Carter

In 2008, 60-year-old retired baker Sam Carter had fallen into a coma from severe anemia, which occurs when a person’s red blood cell count gets too low or blood lacks hemoglobin. Carter had been in a coma for three days, and he was given a 30 percent chance of recovering. The doctor suggested his family to constantly stimulate him, eventually playing some music. His wife got a set of headphones and put them on her husband, playing the Rolling Stones classic “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”

Amazingly, once the song was played, Sam opened his eyes. Sam says that the song gave him energy and pulled him out of the coma. He doesn’t remember much from those unconscious days, but he remembered hearing that song. The song also had a special meaning, as was the first CD he ever bought when he was 17 years old. He said it gave him the push he needed to wake up.

Jarrett Carland

On August 16, 2009, 17-year-old Jarrett Carland and his best friend were involved in a car accident. His best friend was killed and Carland fell into a persistent vegetative state. Doctors said that he would probably never wake up. Carland underwent therapy, and part of that therapy was listening to music. In the care center where Carland stayed, the other patients listened to soft and gentle music, but Jarrett’s parents blared country music legend Charlie Daniels.

After lying in a coma for four months, his parents got a reaction and eventually Jarrett came out of his coma. Six months later, at the Riverbend Music Festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Jarrett got to meet the man who helped him while he was in his coma: Charlie Daniels. Jarrett has fully recovered since.

Jan Grzebski

In 1988, while working on the railroad, Jan Grzebski had his head partially crushed while trying to connect two railroad cars. According to a report coming out of his home in Dzialdowo, Poland, he spent the following 15 years in a coma. His wife spent with him most of her time during this long period. Then, he woke up, and the world was completely new to him. Poland was no longer a communist country and he had to be introduced to his 11 grandchildren. The story was picked up by news organizations around the world, including the Associated Press and the BBC. However, after the story made headlines, Grzebski claimed such stories were exaggerations. In fact, he claimed that he had been in an actual vegetative state for only 4 years. When he woke up, he was still mute and paralyzed, but was partially aware of what was going on around him (Locked-in Syndrome). He heard the television and knew that Poland was no longer communist. He finally re-learned how to talk and even walk.

One of the most common questions we get is why we’re focused on developing a communication platform for unconscious or only partially conscious patients.

The answer is simply: the actual level of their self-consciousness remains today unclear. When a patient wakes up from a Coma, he/she enters a conscious state that will be defined by his capacity to control his body, as well as by the brain activity registered by scanners.

Nevertheless, the incapacity to control movements, speech and eyes, as well as the presence of blood within the brain, is not definitive indicator of the actual level of self-consciousness of the patient. Consequently, doctors invite family members and close friends to keep in regular contact with the patient and to attempt communication as often as possible. Unfortunately, the only current way to do so is by visiting in person or using standard remote communication tools (Skype, Telephone).

Both solutions are difficult to organize and inevitably create distance between the patient and the friends and family wanting to communicate. Research shows that visits from friends and family become less frequent four to six months after stabilization in a Vegetative or Minimal Consciousness State, while patients maintain an average life expectancy of more than 7 years.

This data does not suggest that people stop caring about a patient. However, it is a clear sign of the frustration generated by the difficulty in maintaining regular and easy communication using the physical and technological options available to them.
It is this difficulty that FamilyPlug aims at resolving.

After 6 months of intense research and data crunching, we are proud to announce that investors from Europe and Asia are supporting FamilyPlug, and that the company was officially incorporated September 21st, 2015. Our mission is to create a new tool in Digital Health, providing a messaging service application specifically conceived for immobilized patients (Comatose State, Vegetative State, Locked-in State, Minimal Consciousness State). and establishing a permanent connection between patients and those who wish to support them.

FamilyPlug will revolutionize Occupational Therapy (OT) and Healthcare. Any family member or close friend will be able to count on a remote communication tool in order to support their loved ones. With FamilyPlug installed on a smartphone and setup in a patient’s room, any approved contact will be able to share a video message or piece of music. The sent messages will land on the patient’s mobile phone and will be automatically played without the support of any third party.

In addition, families and Doctors will be able to choose the hours of the day when messages are delivered to the patient.  If a patient is only able to receive messages during a particular afternoon timeslot, any messages received out of this window will be stored in the cloud, waiting for the right moment to be downloaded and played.

Last but not least, support messages tend to be personal and loaded with emotion. Consequently, downloaded messages are automatically played and then deleted forever. Your message of support will remain private.

FamilyPlug. Coming Soon.