The Brain Buzz

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/health&id=8391348

While medicine can keep many of those suffering the most severe cases alive after a coma, many patients have not regained function. But waking up the brain may be possible with cutting edge magnetic therapy.

Life for Josh Villa changed in an instant. After a car accident six years ago, the once active father of three was left in a coma-like state. His mother provides him with constant care. 

"Everybody says, 'how can you do it?' You just do what you need to do when it's put before you," said Laurie McAndrews, mother.

A year after the accident, Villa was enrolled into a first-of-its-kind study using a magnetic therapy known as transcranial magnetic stimulation or TMS.

Dr. Theresa Pape, a clinical neuroscientist and researcher with Hines VA Hospital near Maywood, is running the study. A coil creates a magnetic field, stimulating the brain.

"If we can get these neurons up here to activate and eventually descend down to the brain stem and then ascend back up to the cortex, we should be able to facilitate the repair of the brain," Dr. Pape.