Injured Comatose Man Awakens

On a positive scientific note, a real life Lazerus has risen to a better Warsaw, Poland. An injured man emerged from a 19-year coma and thinks "the world is prettier now." He injured his head in 1988 while attaching two train carriages. Gertruda Grzebska, 63, for years fed her husband Jan carefully with a spoon and moved his body to prevent bed sores. For 19 years he basically did not move or speak. "Now he spends his days sitting in a wheelchair and last weekend we took him out for a walk in his wheelchair," his wife said. "He was so amazed to see the colorful streets, the goods," she said. "He says the world is prettier now" than it was 19 years ago, when Poland was still under communist rule... He remembered shelves filled with mustard and vinegar only" under communism. (Poland shed communism in 1989 and has developed a market economy. )

On a less than positive scientific note, Robert Cooksey, federal microbiologist/father-in-law of the man quarantined with drug-resistant T.B., will be investigated to determine his role in the case. Mr. Speaker said his doctors and the CDC all knew he had resistant TB before he flew to Europe for his wedding. Robert Cooksey, who attended his daughter's wedding, provided "fatherly advice" about traveling. Speaker claims that the Fulton County, Ga., health authorities said that he was not a danger to anyone. Officials preferred that he didn't fly, but no one ordered him not to fly. However, despite warnings not to board another flight home, he flew back anyway. He tried to sneak home by way of Canada. He was federally quarantined May 25, after passing through the Canadian border. Speaker is now hospitalized for what could be a two-month period. (As a lawyer, one would hope Speaker knew better than to take such a risk. His expert father in law needed to give scientific advise, not fatherly advice!)