Coma

Q. I saw a story on television about a person who fell into a coma after combining kava with Xanax. I am very concerned about this because my niece's doctor recently prescribed Xanax for her nerves. She occasionally takes kava to help her get to sleep. I have asked her to stop taking the kava for now, and she has, but her insomnia is back. How serious is this combination?A. Kava is a root from the South Pacific that has been used for centuries to induce relaxation. This herb has become very popular in this country for relieving anxiety and insomnia.

Most sports heroes are cheered for their physical prowess. Here's one worth cheering simply for her ability to walk.A woman who once was a model athlete, and now can't carry a cup of coffee without fear of spilling it.A woman who said she was shunned by her mother, and never much knew her father.A woman who lost almost everything, and will never be whole again.Melissa Ambrose, 31, was a three-sport athlete entering her junior year at South Hagerstown High when her world collapsed in July 1985.

An Anne Arundel County grand jury indicted an Annapolis High School student yesterday on charges stemming from the brutal beating of a schoolmate whose injuries were so severe he was in a coma for two weeks.Brian C. Plattenburg, 16, of the first block of Bens Drive in Annapolis was charged as an adult with first-degree assault, which carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison, and reckless endangerment, which carries a sentence of up to five years.Plattenburg is accused of beating Melvin "Bird" Holland, 17, and kicking him in the head March 23 in a dispute over firecrackers in school.

A 22-year-old man remained in a coma yesterday after being struck by a Maryland Rail Commuter service train Friday night in Elkridge, Howard County police said.The man, whose name withheld until relatives were notified, was walking with an unidentified 21-year-old woman on the tracks near Levering Avenue and Lawyers Hill Road about 9: 15 p.m. when he was hit by the Washington-bound train.Police said the couple apparently stepped off the tracks, onto a narrow strip on the edge of a 60-foot drop, after the engineer sounded a warning horn.

"Girlfriend in a Coma," by Douglas Coupland. Regan Books. 284 page.$24.It's worth remembering that the works of novelist Douglas Coupland, like "The X-Files," are produced in Canada. British Columbia, to be exact. And even though the supernatural conspiracy theory television show and Coupland's fictional expositions of the banalities of life in the 1990s are tied in various ways to the promise and products of Hollywood and Washington, there's still an evergreen scent floating around both bodies of work.

My son was talking about a new drug called "Grievous Body Harm" (or something like that) that is becoming more popular at parties. What can you tell me about it?We think you are referring to the drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB). GHB is also known as Georgia Home Boy and Grievous Bodily Harm (to play off its initials) but also as liquid ecstasy and Natural Sleep-500.GHB was first synthesized in 1960 and it is capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier. This barrier is a complex structure that prevents many drugs and chemicals in the blood from entering the brain.

AFTER MANY years of watching the most widely celebrated trial in human history, I slipped quietly into a coma. Johnnie Cochran objected. I was deeply flattered.Johnnie Cochran was the most brilliant defense attorney to put a leaden thumb on the scales of justice since Socrates argued his own case. Now he was objecting to my very own coma. Surely there were rich book possibilities here.Judge Lance Ito dealt summarily with him. "Cochran," said Judge Ito, "go eat your prunes." Marcia Clark objected that it was unfair to give dietary advice to the defense.

Thomas E. Cole's spoof of B-grade science-fiction movies, "I Married a Fly," is an extremely entertaining play, but under its comic, schlocky veneer it raises some serious issues.These stem from an unusual, highly publicized event in the playwright's family history. Nine years ago, his 43-year-old mother suffered a massive stroke and lapsed into a coma. In keeping with her previously stated wishes, her family petitioned the court to have life support systems removed. Six days after the petition was denied, she awoke from the coma -- alert, though somewhat changed.

Time and again the same dreadful mistake kept recurring. It killed a 5-year-old Texas child, a 16-year-old Virginia youth, a 21-year-old pregnant woman in New York, a 56-year-old man in England, a 15-month-old boy in Saudi Arabia and at least eight others.Under treatment for cancer, all these patients had received mistaken spinal injections of vincristine, a highly toxic drug that should only be injected, with caution, into veins -- never into the spine. But hurried doctors and nurses all over the world repeatedly confused syringes containing vincristine with other drugs intended for spinal injection.

The nightmare began the day before Thanksgiving 1993, when Glenn Renfro, 40, suffered a minor seizure while he was repairing a car.But the busy owner of Renfro's Hilltop Service Station in Manchester ignored his dizziness and the next day left town for a week of hunting."

Josh Corbett, a rising junior basketball player at Parkville and the team's leading scorer last season, was involved in a severe car accident Friday, according to Knights coach Rod Norris. Corbett, 6 feet 7, was traveling with his girlfriend's family to Virginia Beach for a vacation. Norris said it's believed that the driver fell asleep at the wheel and Corbett's car went up 20 feet in the air, spun and landed in a ravine. Norris said all four people in the car lived through the accident but that Corbett is still in the Virginia Commonwealth Health Center in Richmond.

For many local Morrissey fans, the evening of July 3, 2007, was a night of mixed emotions. After contracting a viral infection, the British singer/songwriter (and former front man of '80s alternative band the Smiths) canceled a handful performances on his U.S. tour, including one at Baltimore's Rams Head Live. But thanks to some foresight on the part of Andy "Sy" Seyler, drummer and leader of local Smiths/Morrissey tribute band Girlfriend in a Coma, fans were given a Morrissey-based show, despite the absence of the real deal.

Skateboard row hits the Internet A Baltimore police officer is suspended after a video appeared on the Internet showing him manhandling a teen skateboarder at the Inner Harbor. Allstate can stop coastal policies Maryland regulators said there is nothing illegal about Allstate's decision to stop writing new homeowner policies in some coastal areas. Obama, McCain score in primaries Voters in Maryland, Virginia and Washington gave primary election wins to Barack Obama and John McCain.

When I first saw Anna, I noticed how firmly she stood, tall and beautiful. Then, as she sat down for an interview to talk about her husband and her ordeal, she appeared smaller in a sad but compellingly composed way. It was disheartening to listen to her recall the details of the search for her husband, who has been in a coma since he was beaten and left unconscious in a June robbery just outside their Patterson Park home. Violence in Baltimore seems out of control. I wanted to show what this social pandemic is doing to the victims and their loved ones, so I asked Anna if I could join her when she visited her husband in the hospital and take photographs for the paper.

An Ellicott City man pleaded guilty yesterday to attempted second-degree murder, nine months after he admitted to police that he choked his wife during an argument and caused her to fall into a coma. Ghafour Asemani, 38, could receive a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 13. Samira Salmassi remains in a coma at Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital in Baltimore. A statement read at yesterday's hearing by Assistant State's Attorney Stacy A. Mayer and approved by Asemani recounted how the couple divorced in 2002 but lived together with their three children in the 8800 block of Town and Country Blvd.

Doctors thousands of miles apart were looking for signs of neurological activity yesterday as two men - a world leader and a coal miner - slowly emerged from medically induced comas. The doctors had similar reasons to place Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and West Virginia miner Randal McCloy in states of deep sleep: to give their brains a rest from injuries that nearly killed them. Sharon suffered a massive brain hemorrhage requiring three operations, and McCloy suffered carbon monoxide poisoning while trapped in a West Virginia mine.

JERUSALEM -- Doctors plan to start bringing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon out of a medically induced coma today to learn how seriously his brain was damaged by a major stroke last week, a hospital official said yesterday. Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director general of Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem, told reporters that a new scan of Sharon's brain showed a decrease in swelling. The 77-year- old leader remained in "severe but stable" condition with vital signs and pressure inside his skull normal, Mor-Yosef said.

NATIONAL Studying Katrina survivors Weariness, anxiety and pessimism are pervasive among Hurricane Katrina survivors, according to the preliminary findings of a Harvard Medical School study. pg 3a WORLD Sharon in coma after surgery Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was in an induced coma and battling for his life last night, hospital officials said, after surgery to stop severe bleeding in his brain from the stroke he suffered Wednesday night. pg 1a MARYLAND Mall merchant fatally shot A Security Square Mall merchant was shot dead yesterday on a parking lot at the Woodlawn shopping center, and police were searching for a stolen car spotted leaving the scene.

Waking from a coma without his sense of touch, a man is rehabbed by a loving nurse (Jenna Elfman, above) in Touched (9 p.m.-11 p.m., Lifetime).

NEW YORK - A Buffalo firefighter who started speaking after nearly 10 years may one day help scientists unravel the mysteries of coma and consciousness. On Saturday, after almost a decade locked in his own world, answering "yes" and "no" questions but nothing more, Donald Herbert, 43, began a lengthy dialogue with loved ones, including his wife, Linda, and four sons, near his home in Orchard Park, a Buffalo suburb. "It's thrilling," said Katherine Manka, Herbert's aunt. Herbert is in a nursing home.