Desperate to Live: Paralysed man signals with his eyes

[GoggleboxUK]

A paralysed man whose life-support machine was about to be switched off signalled to doctors that he wanted to live by moving his eyes.



The incredible moment when father-of-two Richard Rudd, 43, managed to communicate his will to live was filmed for a BBC documentary about patients with serious brain injuries.



Between Life and Death followed the progress of Mr Rudd and two other patients over six months at the Britain's leading brain injury unit at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.

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Mr Rudd was seriously injured after his motorbike collided with a car pulling out of a petrol station last October.



He was left completely paralysed and non-responsive.



His family believed he would not want to live in such a state and gave doctors permission to withdraw treatment.



But as staff were poised to switch off his life-support machine Mr Rudd began to move his eyes.



Asked by doctors if he wanted to live, he replied "yes" by moving his eyes.

[will.15]

Truth may not be stranger than fiction, but at least just as strange. That sounds like that Alfred Hitchcock episode where the paralyzed guy at the morgue started crying.

[Steve Crook]

They showed The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) (Le scaphandre et le papillon) on TV recently. That's based on a book by Jean-Dominique Bauby, the editor in chief of Elle magazine. He had a massive stroke and only had some movement in his head and eyes (one of which had to be sewn up due to an irrigation problem). The entire book was written by Bauby blinking his left eyelid!



Steve

[Maurice]

JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN (1971, dir. Dalton Trumbo), and the acclaimed 2008 remake, depict severe paralysis.



They are mentioned in thread 'World War One movies....'

[Kitty Whiskers]

It was a very good documentary showing three stories with mixed outcomes.



The young lad in question had previously said that he didn't want to live if anything like that ever happened to him, after a family friend (I think) had been left in a vegetative state. To their utter credit, the medical and nursing staff did absolutely everything they could to find out if he (a) really understood his situation and ( wanted them to continue with treatment.



The 'desperate to live' headline the papers were pushing was a bit over the top. The medical staff were looking to see if he had brain function, they were just surprised to find he had any in light of his extensive injuries.