Courtesy of New York Times writer James Barron, and his account of brain-injured firefighter Donald Herbert’s remarkable recuperation from his decade-long comatose state, we’re treated to this handy, pocket-sized, sentence-length compendium of the events of the past ten years in American History (After Sudden Lucidity, Firefighter Is Less Animated, May 5, 2005):
Dr. Ahmed said Mr. Herbert thought that it had been only a couple of months since the accident, not a decade – in which a president was tried for impeachment; e-mail and cellphones became popular; and his hometown football team, the Buffalo Bills, made the playoffs four times.
Clinton’s impeachment, technology’s growth and proliferation, etc…This seems to cover all the bases, for the most part.
Shit…Wait, wait, something’s missing, right? What the fuck else has happened in the past ten years? Maybe George Pataki can help us out here:
“We will never forget the individual lives that were lost, the tremendous personal sacrifices and the countless acts of heroism that will forever mark September 11, 2001 as a day the world changed forever,” Governor Pataki said. “Those heroes will be forever in the hearts and minds of people throughout New York State and around the world.”
There you have it: Bills quarterback Doug Flutie, forever in our hearts and minds.
4 replies on “Re-Awakened Firefighter Donald Herbert’s Personalized American History (from 1995 to the Present)”
i like the b&w photo of the guy. but he kind of looks like the milkman from “leave it to beaver”, not a fireman.
Less lucid eh? oh well. Easy come, easy go. But I forgot about the Bills:
http://www.diztopia.com/2005/05/while_you_were_.html
Seems funny that Herbert’s family demanded that the good doctor not identify the drugs that brougth Herbert back. Either they don’t want anyone else to benefit from this treatment or they have some sceme in mind where only the family would be able to ID the drugs and hence reap tons of money. I suspect them latter. It would be terrible if say a doctor used a drug that cured cancer in a patient and the patients family were the only ones able to benefit from the cure. Since when does the patient own the rights to the method of treatment that cures him.
I would love to know if there was medicine involved because my son has been minimally concious for 9 years. I would give anything if he could awaken.
Thank you,
Lisa Lloyd