Akinetic Mutism In The Awakenings

The Awakenings was based on a group of patients with a disease called Encephalitis. The first sign of Encephalitis is normal flu like symptoms then starts getting more severe and will cause muscle pains, upper body weakness, tremors, neck rigidity and behavioral changes. Once it becomes severe there is a high chance the person will enter a coma-like state also known as Akinetic Mutism. In the movie, the Awakenings, this state would give the patients the name ‘Statue’. They will physically be there, but mentally they are gone. When they get awoken they come back with what they left the physical world knowing. They have the same goals and values as they did when they entered the coma-like state, but by the time they are awoken they will be older and their lives have changed majorly without them. Sadly there is nothing they could do about it and that is one reason they valued the short time they had while being awake.
Sayer started doing research on the patients with Encephalitis. He noticed that they responded to certain things either using reflexes or the desire to complete the task. He threw a tennis ball in the air and all of the patients would suddenly move and catch the ball. This was exciting to Dr. Sayer, but the other doctors weren’t impressed. He was proving that there was still someone mentally and physically there, which was something no one else saw. I think Dr. Sayer was a great man for what he had accomplished and discovered. There was hope for everyone who got the disease after that, only to realize the drug L-Dopa would soon wear off no matter how big of a dose the patient was given. L-Dopa was a temporary cure to the disease. I think this was still a great thing to use the drug on the patients since they got the short time to know more about their condition, how long it’s been and even get to see what all has changed in the world since they’ve been trapped in their own