Bring this post to the attention to the Aussie overlord I found in a pub in the Smoke, if you will. The first topic of conversation we had - before the podcast recording - was about Michael Schumacher's potential for recovery.
Unfortunately, I could only think of one reasonably lengthy coma victim - the relentlessly unpleasant Seth Putnam, whose history of extreme drug abuse finally caught up with him after a massive overdose in 2004. He spent two months in a coma, and Terrorizer described it as an absolute tragedy when he woke up. If anyone's wondering how much damage was done,
watch this interview from 2010.
ACHTUNG: all links to anything Seth Putnam was involved in contain more extremely naughty words than Juan Pablo Montoya's radio messages - and a lot of subjects best not discussed anywhere, any time. You have been warned!Leaving him aside for a mo, I've now been reminded - not that I should have needed reminding - of Ken Owen. He was the drummer in Carcass, during their original run from some time in the mid-80s to 1995.
Here's what he was capable of in the band's heyday.
In 1999, seemingly for no reason whatsoever, he had a massive brain haemorrhage. It put him in a coma for ten months. When he finally woke up, he found he had to learn to walk and talk again, from scratch.
After many years of cajoling, Carcass reformed in 2008 and were immediately announced for some major festivals, with Daniel Erlandsson installed behind the kit. I was there at Wacken that year - and, in the middle of the set, without any hint that it would happen,
Ken turned up and played a drum solo. So it wasn't anywhere near as fast as he used to be able to do in the glory days; it was rather basic, all things considered. But this was a man who had woken up to find he couldn't move or talk, had been through years of painstaking recovery, and had recovered enough movement to be able to drum again. So he dropped a few beats; nobody cared! No word of a lie, grown men were in floods of tears at this performance, because we all knew what a stunning recovery this had been, and that there'd been not even the slightest hint he'd even be there to show us only added to the shock. You can see at the end of the video he had to be helped off the drum stool; he did come shuffling to the front of the stage to talk to us, in a rather slurred voice, to say thanks for all our support over those years and could we welcome Daniel Erlandsson as the new drummer.
Likely as not, Ken Owen can never be the same again as he was before the haemorrhage. But, that day, we were shown how far he had progressed, from potentially being condemned to life as a vegetable.
At some stage, we would all hope, Michael Schumacher will wake up. He may not be able to walk. He may not be able to talk. If he can't do either, he'll have the same uphill climb as Ken did. And there, laid bare for you, is how far up the hill he could climb. Maybe even further, given that he has millions of euros in the bank to buy the most advanced treatment possible.
And for the record, Ken Owen is a better drummer
now than I could ever hope to be.
