Dr. Nicholas Schiff

COVID-19 patients placed on ventilators can take a long time to regain consciousness. New research from Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian, MIT, and Massachusetts General Hospital is now illustrating that these delays may serve a purpose: protecting the brain from oxygen deprivation.

Most patients with severe COVID who are put on ventilators regain consciousness after removal of respiratory support, but recovery may take weeks after the period of mechanical ventilation has ended, according to a new study by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Harvard Medical School, .NewYork-Presbyterian and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Last spring, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit New York City with full force, Dr. Daniel MacGowan, a neurologist specializing in neuromuscular disease, was asked to consult in a COVID recovery ward.

Neurologists traditionally have expected that patients who remain in coma after cardiac arrest have almost no chance of making a meaningful recovery if they fail to emerge from coma within a week.

Measuring brain activity in response to hearing a brief narrative can identify patients with severe brain injury who have preserved high-level cognition despite showing limited or no consciousness at the bedside, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.

Neurology tends to be a tough specialty. I remember our first day of residency at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. [Jerome] Posner and Dr. [Fred] Plum [MD ’47] said, ‘For neurological patients, you are their last line of defense. Most people don’t understand neurological disease. They are afraid of it. It’s hard to deal with, and this is your job.’

A severely brain injured woman, who recovered the ability to communicate using her left eye, restored connections and function of the areas of her brain responsible for producing expressive language and responding to human speech, according to new research from Weill Cornell Medicine scientists.