FLICKR, DAN4TH NICHOLAS
Ambien, and its generic counterpart zolpidem, have long been used to help sleepless people get a good night’s rest. But over the past 12 years, anecdotal reports have suggested the drugs may serve another purpose—reviving minimally conscious coma patients.
The first report was almost too amazing to believe, and as such, didn’t receive the credence that maybe it should have. In 1999, Louis Viljoen was hit by a truck and declared vegetative, kept alive by machines for three years before his doctor prescribed him zolpidem thinking it might stop him from clawing his mattress in the middle of the night. Twenty minutes after receiving his first dose, he woke up and started talking to his mother. He floated in and out of consciousness over the ...
