Ambien’s effectiveness in the treatment of patients
Sunday, August 31st, 2008This evening, 60 minutes aired a documentary on medical patients functioning at reduced levels of consciousness who are being treated with Ambien. Studies have shown significant improvement in brain activity when Ambien is administered. To give you an idea of the success of this drug when appropriately administered, I have copied below an article that ran in Sensible Life Magazine last year regarding a film composer, Ludvig Girdland, who was hit by a drunk driver in the fall of 2005. Today, Ludvig continues to operate at a lower level of consciousness, but also continues to improve. If you read the story below and wish to purchase some of Ludvig’s beautiful music, you’ll be pleased to know that funds from the sale of the CD with Josh Nelson goes to Ludvig’s medical fund.
SPLIT SECOND DECISION
Imagine a couple very much in love. She is an accomplished ice skater, formerly skating with Holiday On Ice and in the Olympics. Her career was on the rise as she trained, taught and coached aspiring skaters. He is a phenomenally talented musician and composer, with the violin as his instrument of choice, but his is no ordinary violin. It is one of only 3 of its kind in Los Angeles that plugs into an electrical outlet, making his violin special. The uniqueness of his violin is only surpassed by the uniqueness of his own mortal presence in this world as a musician, a composer, a husband, a brother, a friend, a son, and a businessman.
His name is Ludvig Girdland. Born in Sweden, he has played the violin since the age of 4, even playing with symphony orchestras before the age of 15. After completing his studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston, he moved to Los Angeles to further develop his musical profession. He has played with such artists as Diana Krall, Betty Buckley and Terry Gibbs. You’ve likely heard his music in television commercials by Ford, Toyota, and Coca Cola and in motion pictures such as K-19 and Something’s Gotta Give.
Her name is Tamara Kuchiki, a Canadian born in Montreal to professional ice skating parents. Following in their footsteps, Tamara began developing her career at an early age. That same stamina, strength and determination that has served her well in achieving her skating goals is so evident in how she has handled the most unexpected tragedy of her life.
Imagine listening to the most beautiful violin music you’ve ever heard. (Ludvig’s music can be heard at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/ludvig, and http://cdbaby.com/cd/nelsongirdland). As you listen, think of your name, your zip code, or your profession. In the time it takes you to picture any one of those in your mind, that’s the amount of time it took for one individual to make the decision to drive under the influence of alcohol, changing the course of many lives forever by running a red light and crashing into Ludvig and Tamara’s car September 16th, 2005.
The driver’s blood alcohol level was .07 even three hours later when the breathalyzer test was finally administered. His reason for drinking? He had been celebrating the birth of his child and also receiving a passing score on his police officer exam. His punishment for this accident? Six months in the county jail. Six months out of a possible maximum of six years, and the only words he has ever spoken to his victims were uttered on that fateful night, “Do you have insurance?”
As for Ludvig; he, too, is serving a sentence; possibly a life sentence as he remains imprisoned in a world of medical facilities, machines and treatment for his comatose condition. Tamara is serving this sentence with her beloved husband by his side daily, waiting, hoping and delighting in even the slightest sign of improvement in his condition. In an exclusive interview Tamara tells of their life together and the results of that single, selfish act of another that has changed the course of their future.
Tamara and Ludvig first met in the show, Holiday On Ice In Concert. “A live orchestra toured with us, and Ludvig played the violin.. We both lived in Boston at the time, but had never met; we both lived in Los Angeles at the same time and never met; we went all the way to Holland to do this show, and we met each other there, and it just felt right.”
This couple, destined for success, could never have imagined the ill fate they were about to meet. “The accident was on a Friday night. We wanted to see the movie that Ludvig had played in. Strangely, the name of the movie was An Unfinished Life.”
After the movie, they were heading home, had exited the freeway and were sitting at the light at the end of the ramp. With construction all around, visibility was obscured for traffic coming from the left or right. “We were the first at the light. It turned green, and it was like we were run over by a train or something. The force was incredible, and we passed out for about 10 minutes. Two friends from Sweden were with us, and I could see Ludvig and one friend sitting in the front seat still passed out. The two of us in the back woke up and were out of the car trying to get them to wake up. It was surreal.”
Ludvig was taken immediately to UCLA Hospital, arriving 50 minutes later and undergoing 17 hours of surgery to remove part of his skull and subdural hematomas in his head, repair his rib cage, intestines and other injuries. The initial prognosis was grim with the doctors indicating he would never breathe on his own again and there was nothing more they could do. Two weeks passed, and he was breathing on his own again. Ludvig was then moved to a rehab facility, then later moved to Sweden where he could receive more intense treatment.
Medical providers said Ludvig wasn’t reacting to stimulation, but that really wasn’t so. “He reacts to pain, withdrawing from it. The reacting is different levels of coma. I don’t know what stage he actually is now, but he’s awake. He can follow you, and he has a regular sleeping pattern. He’ll stay awake for most of the day, but if he gets left alone and nobody does anything with him, he gets a fidgety, or looks sleepy. The minute you start moving him, touching him, or encouraging him to try something different, he joins in. He’s much more there than people think.”
Fortunately, Ludvig has a doctor who is willing to try things. “He has ridden a horse and did great with that. They were originally just going to sit him on the horse, and he sat so well that they walked him for about a half mile, and he held on with his right arm. He sat on a regular saddle with a light support vest and no one on the horse with him. He overstretched twice, but his head stayed fine, and he had good support in his upper body in his torso.”
Tamara has seen Ludvig make amazing progress over the past year, but it’s still difficult to tell the full extent of his injury. “Because the injury is on the brain stem, they don’t have it 100% tested to see what is actually damaged. You’re in the dark on finding out if it’s damaged for good, or if it’s just swollen. It can be swollen for quite some time. We’re just going along with what we can see is functioning. If we see that’s not working then we say okay well maybe that’s injured. It’s a little scary because you don’t know if this is how it is, or if this is still a part that’s coming along. So you have to be patient and just keep going at all these different therapies.”
Tamara’s days are full, beginning with an early morning visit to her husband before teaching skating in the early afternoon. “I was very lucky to actually get the opportunity to work with skaters in Sweden. It felt good to jump into it and do what I was actually doing in LA. That’s helped a great deal. It’s been therapeutic for me and has helped me be myself. It feels somewhat like it used to be –the normal –and I can bring a portion of what I used to do home and tell Ludvig. Before, he heard about skating all the time, and it was good to have that energy and excitement to bring to him. He needs to feel what’s going on out in the world. Skating is my life, and Ludvig is my life, and it’s even more special that I met, through my passion for skating, my husband, whom I love.”
Before work, Tamara spends quiet time with Ludvig. “Every day I lay in bed with him. Sometimes we’ll just lay there and watch some TV, or we’ll just cuddle, or I’ll work with the hands a little bit while we’re laying there. We’ve always cuddled, and we always inspired each other’s creativity. He inspired mine, and I saw how hard he strived for originality and how he worked at his craft and how he inspired me to challenge myself more. He is more than I ever expected, and I had always spent free time with him, though, I had never even considered anything like this in my life.”
There are difficult times when Tamara must travel back to LA. “I’ll call Ludvig twice a day, and I can hear the nurses in the background saying, ‘Oh he’s smiling’. He smiles and he does cry, so we’re getting responses. We’re still quite a ways away, but I’m happy that we can see differences. There’s just not enough time in the day to do everything I want to do with him, and with the energy he has. I’m mixing it up, but not so much that he can’t grasp something. If you change the pattern every day, it becomes a little too much for him to handle, so you have to try to remain consistent. It’s difficult figuring out the right pattern.”
Even if Ludvig completely recovers, he will still have a long road ahead rebuilding his career. “It’s hard as a musician, but he was pretty successful in the studios just from scratch with no agent. When he first arrived in LA, he worked hard and got a lot of contacts. He has incredible talent. Ludvig’s primary goal was playing music, but he also liked composing his own music. I was lucky to have one that he composed for me, Will You Be My Valentine. He wrote that for me when we were separated for the opening and closing of the Olympics. I was skating in it and was gone for 8 weeks to Salt Lake City. In that time, Ludvig came to visit me four times. We missed Valentine’s Day together, but that’s when he wrote it. I’ve never had anybody do such a thing for me.”
That’s how life was with Ludvig. “Every birthday I would get serenaded. He would open the door and he would have on the stand beside the bed these candles, and he would come in with the violin and I would get my own Happy Birthday. It was very special.”
So many studios have suffered the loss of a wonderful person as well as the loss of his music and talent. “They would tell him, ‘This is what we’d like and something with this kind of feel’, and he’d go and lay down the tracks and he might be done in 15 minutes. He’s just very talented. He was trying to get more of his own stuff and trying to figure out what his own stuff actually is.”
“I’m lucky he’s still here and that he wasn’t completely taken. I’m thankful for the time I have with him; it could have been a lot worse. I have a lot of hope. One day I gave him a hug and helped his right arm move across my back. I could feel him feeling me and I closed my eyes. I actually felt like he was going to talk to me. He didn’t, but I felt it and it was so wonderful to have that. If I could speak to the world, my message would be to appreciate what you have, think of others and don’t be selfish. Live life to the fullest because you never know when it can be taken away. You have so much to be thankful for just to be able to breath, walk, talk, be with the one you love and just get that reciprocation, so don’t take it for granted.”
Sphere: Related Content