A man labelled "brain dead" has become the first ever to recover from an extreme form of locked-in syndrome which rendered him totally paralysed.
In 2017, Jacob Haendel was living a normal life as a head chef in Boston, Massachusetts.
But he space of just a few weeks, his life was turned upside down after he was diagnosed with acute toxic progressive leukoencephalopathy, which in turn progressed into locked-in syndrome and forced his body would slowly shut down.
An extreme form of locked-in syndrome is a condition in which a patient is aware but cannot move or communicate verbally due to complete paralysis and can be caused by a brain trauma, and infection, and exposure to toxins.
It is not known exactly how Jacob developed the condition, though he says his life as a chef consuming certain chemicals "willfully and otherwise" may have been a factor.
