When Adam Dansiger '00 was thrown from his sports utility vehicle in an October accident, doctors at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center did not expect him to live 24 hours.
But 12 weeks later, according to friends and family, he is in an "emerging coma," recognizes people, has started to take steps, has regained his vision and can even answer math and chemistry questions.
Dansiger is now a patient at the John F. Kennedy Coma Rehabilitation Center in Edison, N.J. Doctors there have determined his memory, intelligence and personality are intact. They say it is only a matter of time before he awakens from his coma, his mother, Gail Dansiger, said.
Dansiger "will definitely be back at Dartmouth," she said.
Although he has not started to speak, Dansiger uses thumb up and thumb down signals to identify chemistry formulas, can answer arithmetic problems with a show of fingers on his left hand and can point at colors, according to Chrissy DeLorenzo '99, a friend of Dansiger's since high school.
DeLorenzo is spending the term in New York and visits Dansiger about once a week.
She said Dansiger uses his left arm and hand to respond because his right side is weaker than his left.
Dansiger is on anti-seizure medications which make him drowsy, but still receives between three and four hours of physical, occupational and speech therapy each day, Gail Dansiger said.
She said doctors are also planning to put Dansiger on medication to break up calcium deposits in his left shoulder, which he broke during the accident.
Gail Dansiger, who spends almost 40 hours a week with her son, said she was not surprised by his recovery.
"Anybody who knows my son knows he's a fighter," she said.
DeLorenzo agreed. "[Dansiger's] the toughest kid I know," she said. "If anyone could pull through this it would have to be him."
Dansiger was traveling southbound on I-89 at approximately 6:55 a.m. on the morning of October 17 when he lost control of the 1991 Mazda Navajo he was driving, Vermont State Police told The Dartmouth in October.
Dansiger, who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the car at some point during the three times the car rolled over.
Two other passengers, who police did not identify, sustained minor cuts and abrasions.
