Tell me the exact name of a new medication [a neuro-transmitter] used
that 'Woke up' a firefighter, who had previously been in a coma for
9.5 years and was living in a nursing home.  I want to know the exact
name of the medication and the pharmaceutical company that makes it.

This story was in the news very recently.  The firefighter was at a
fire scene and was deprived of oxygen for 10 minutes...and became
brain damaged due to  oxygen deficiency.

Please include all your sources, along with the name of the new drug and the
Pharmaceutical Company that makes it.

I doubt the name of the medication, if there is just one, will be made available:

"So what's the explanation for these reports of long-delayed, sudden improvement? 

"We really don't know for sure what's going on," says Anthony
Stringer, director of neuropsychology in the department of
rehabilitation medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine.

While the answer might involve some long-delayed change in the brain,
experts said Tuesday, a sudden improvement might also result from a
far different cause, like a change in medications or treatment of some
other medical condition that's been suppressing mental function.

Experts say such cases are so rare they don't have much to study, and
note that news accounts usually leave out the details needed to
evaluate possible causes."

(...)

"The nursing home and the family have declined to describe his
condition since then or discuss medical details of the case."

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ats-ap_us15may03,0,87747.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines

More can be read here:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ats-ap_us15may03,0,87747.story?page=2&coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines

I hope this helps.

Best regards,
Rainbow

I agree with my colleague Rainbow. Exact information about the drug(s)
used in this case has not been released. Since such information is
part of the patient's confidential medical records, it is not possible
to obtain details which are not divulged by Mr. Herbert's physicians.
I have seen nothing to indicate that any "new" drug was involved here.
Apparently a combination of drugs was used.

"Mr. Herbert's doctors said yesterday that they had tried using
various combinations of drugs to revive him. Three months ago, when
his condition worsened, they switched him to a cocktail of drugs that
is normally used to treat depression, Parkinson's disease and
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. His doctors would not name
the drugs they had administered, but a number of medications have been
shown in the past to stimulate awareness in a handful of people who
were minimally conscious, even after several years.

Gary Dockery, a Tennessee police officer who was left paralyzed and
mute after being shot in the head in 1988, suddenly spoke up nine
years later when his doctors gave him diazepam, an antianxiety
medication. For about 18 hours, Mr. Dockery returned to life and
started talking and recalling memories of camping trips. Just as
unexpectedly, he relapsed the next day. He died about a year later
from a blood clot in his lung.

Dr. Nicholas D. Schiff, an assistant professor of neurology and
neuroscience at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital, said
there have been cases in which people awoke from minimally conscious
states after being given similar drugs, including zolpidem, another
antianxiety medication."

http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050505/ZNYT04/505050380/1002/BUSINESS

You may be referring to L-DOPA (levodopa in its pharmaceutical
formulation), an amino acid naturally present in the body which is
converted into the neurotransmitter dopamine (a drug commonly
associated with arousal).  This drug is usually used in Parkinson's
Disease (it was noted to revive vegatative patients sufferring from
acute Parkinson's in the well-known <i>Awakenings</i> by Oliver
Sacks), which is thought to be caused by degeneration of dopamine
neurons.  Because dopamine does not cross the blood brain barrier (an
anatomical and physiological barrier which keeps certain substances
from entering the brain), levodopa is used instead.  Levodopa crosses
the blood brain barrier and is converted by an enzyme into dopamine. 
The amino acid L-Tyrosine is also sometimes used, which is itself
converted into L-DOPA.

Several neurotransmitters, including dopamine, are thought to be
involved in coma.  There are several treatments used to increase
production or release of dopamine.  Among them are the precursors
L-Tyrosine and L-DOPA, methylphenidate (Ritalin) and amphetamines
(usually d-amphetamine [Dexedrine]) which stimulate the release of
dopamine (and also norepinephrine, another neurotransmitter related to
arousal) and, infrequently, dopamine agonists (drugs that activate
specific dopamine receptors) like bromocriptine (Parlodel).

In the U.S., levodopa is available as Dopar (produced by Roberts
Pharmaceutical Corporation) and Larodopa (Hoffmann La Roche, Inc.) as
well as generic formulations.

 http://www.pharmacorama.com/en/Sections/Catecholamines_3.php
 http://www.sdbif.org/Newsletter/Article04.htm
 http://cjns.metapress.com/index/K73VUQYNFJFUT4PY.pdf
 http://www.comawakening.com/coma.html

CNN Online did a story of this fireman.  This particular article
stated that a new neuro-transmitter was given to this fireman,
recently.  It was this story that piqued my curiosity.

All of the various drugs mentioned below by sdfromga and pinkfreud [my
former answer person at Google], are all very old drugs, so they could
not be what the article referred to.

Often, a new drug not yet approved by the FDA, can be given in cases
such as this fireman....a drug that may still be in clinical trials. 
That kind of info is usually found in stockmarket trade journals or
well-known print sources like FORBES and the WSJ....they have
divisions that follow the progress of drugs in clinical trials, for
obvious reasons.

I'm so busy with my own job, that I was hoping you could do that
research for me about a possible new drug.  I'm not interested in this
info as an investor,
only as a curious person watching the pharmaceutical industry.

I hope you will continue to search for me. 

I used to be joyhana when I had an AOL account, but I have dumped AOL.
 That name of joyhana is still locked up within Google Answers, so
when I opened a new account at Google, with my new Gmail name and
tried to continue to use joyhana, I was told that it was already in
use? [by me, formerly].  So, now, I have to be satisfied with joyhana
2005.

I was wondering if you were the same joyhana! Thanks for clearing that up.

I spent about three hours on this yesterday, and failed to turn up any
information that specifies the name of a drug. Mr. Herbert's medical
team is playing this very close to the vest. Other than the barrier of
patient confidentiality, there may also be legitimate concerns that if
a certain drug were to be named, the families of other brain-injured
patients will demand that drug in hopes that it will help their loved
ones. Many physicians are leery of giving false hope to desperate
people seeking a "miracle cure."

This article refers to "new medication," but there is no indication
that there is any new drug, merely a "cocktail" combining several
existing drugs. I believe the term "new" just means that this
combination of drugs had not previously been used in treating this
patient.

"At Wednesday's news conference, Dr Jamil Ahmed said Herbert was put
on new medication three months ago that he thought might take six
months to be effective. When Ahmed examined him on Saturday, Herbert
could follow commands such as shaking his head, moving his hands and
counting up to 200.

'I went to see him in the nursing home and I was so amazed. I was so
surprised that not only was he talking but he was talking very
sensibly.

'He was remembering his past, he just didn't realise how long he had
been asleep. He recognised people. His comments were very interesting
and people were laughing.'

Ahmed tried a combination of three medicines usually used to treat
Parkinson's disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and
depression. He said the cocktail was meant to stimulate
neurotransmitters, which brain cells use to communicate with each
other.

Dr Ross Zafonte, chairperson of the department of physical medicine
and rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh, said such classes
of drugs may help with a rerouting of brain circuitry.

While promising in this case, the approach is not a cure-all for
brain-injured patients, he said."

http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=132&fArticleId=2510338

This CNN article likewise seems to refer to a new combination of
existing drugs, not a new drug:

"Certain medications had shown promise in Dr. Jamil Ahmed's more
recently brain-damaged patients, drugs normally used to treat
Parkinson's disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and
depression. He gave them to Herbert... The drug combination, he said,
was meant to stimulate neurotransmitters, which brain cells use to
communicate with one another."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/conditions/05/05/firefighter.recovery.ap

"A doctor who treated the Buffalo firefighter who regained his
long-lost ability to communicate credited a new mix of medicines,
including stimulants, anti-depressants and Parkinson's disease drugs.

Donald Herbert, known to friends and family as 'Donnie,' emerged from
nearly a decade of minimal consciousness Saturday, conversing with
loved ones long into the night.
 
Wednesday, the doctor at Erie County Medical Center who has treated
the severely brain-damaged man for 21/2 years, said he had recently
prescribed the medications but would not name them specifically."

http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hswake0505,0,3730818.story?coll=ny-health-headlines

"The change came about three months after Ahmed prescribed medications
targeting chemicals in the brain, including norepinephrine, dopamine,
and serotonin. The names of the medications were not disclosed, in
keeping with the wishes of the Herbert family. Ahmed says the drugs
are 'mostly given to people who have attention problems, cognitive
problems, Parkinson's disease, and mood disorders.'

Ahmed also told WebMD that Herbert's condition may fluctuate."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,155608,00.html

Seems funny that Donald 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 huge financial gain.  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.

There is a new drug out for ADD or ADHD called "Strattera."  - ?