Sleeping pill boost to coma patient
Updated on 31 October 2007
A young woman who has spent six years in a coma is showing "signs of life" after taking a sleeping pill.
Amy Pickard, now 23, had been unable to eat or breathe for herself since falling unconscious in 2001 after overdosing on heroin.
But after taking part in a study of the side-effects of the sleeping pill Zolpidem, her eyes have begun to sparkle and she has managed to stand, the Daily Telegraph reported.
She reacts to strong-tasting foods, can breathe unaided, focus on objects in her room and is beginning to formulate words, it said.
Her mother, Thelma Pickard, 54, said: "When she takes the pill, I see her face relax and the old sparkle return to her eyes. It truly is remarkable."
Amy is the subject of a BBC One documentary, The Waking Pill, to be screened tonight, along with Joanne Douglas, 36.
As a student Joanne struggled with bulimia and this is thought to have triggered a massive seizure, causing her to lapse into a coma.
When she woke she could not move and she has not been able to communicate in any meaningful way since 1995, a spokesman for the programme said.
Mrs Pickard, from Hastings, East Sussex, and Joanne's parents, Robert and Jeanette, who are understood to be from Prestwick, Scotland, travelled to South Africa following reports that patients there in a similar state to Amy and Joanne had woken up "as if a switch has been flicked".
Some 60% of patients taking part in a worldwide trial of Zolpidem as a treatment for people in comas have started showing signs of life, the newspaper added.
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