In August 2005, Josh Villa’s life changed forever. Driving home from work and after having a drink with a friend, his car hit a curb and flipped over. He suffered extensive head injuries which lead to him falling into a deep coma after being thrown through the windscreen of his car. At 26 years old, most people thought that was the end of the road for Josh. A year later, he was moved home to Rockford in Illinois where his mother, Laurie McAndrews cared for him.

But on the 16 October 2008, experts from the US Department of Veterans Affairs in Chicago successfully managed to rouse Josh Villa from his coma. It was with the help of Theresa Pape who initially suggested Villa be enrolled in a six week study on electromagnetic currents and its effects on brain tissue. Pape revealed that transcrannial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, has already been considered as a treatment for migraine, stroke, depression and Parkinson’s disease.

TMS works whereby constantly changing frequencies of magnetic fields are used to excite brain cells. In theory, this would make it either easier or harder for brain cells to communicate with each other. In the case of Josh Villa, the magnetic fields were aimed at the brain cells of the right prefrontal dorsolateral cortex where there is a large concentration of connections to the brainstem. This area was targeted because the brainstem is responsible managing other areas of the brain; much like a command centre.

Miraculously, after 15 or so sessions, Villa started to come to. He was even able to form simple single words and obey “one step commands” such as following a pen light with his eyes.

However, treatment using the TMS was stopped after 30 of the planned sessions were completed. Villa was treated another 10 times with the TMS six weeks later but there was no significant improvement in his status. It was however recorded that without the TMS, Villa became very tired and his condition worsened slightly.

Presently, Villa is at home and still being cared for by his mother. She claims that caring for him is much easier due to the TMS sessions he underwent. Villa is also able to interact with visitors.

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