How science found a way to help coma patients communicate

After suffering serious brain injuries, Scott Routley spent 12 years in a vegetative state. But his family were convinced that he was still aware - could a pioneering 'mind-reading' technique prove them right? By Adrian Owen

On 20 December 1999, a young man pulled away in his car from his grandfather's house in Sarnia, Ontario, with his girlfriend in the passenger seat beside him. Scott Routley, who was 26, had studied physics at the University of Waterloo and had a promising career in robotics ahead of him. But at an intersection just a few blocks from his grandfather's house, a police car travelling to the scene of a crime crashed into the side of Scott's car, hitting the driver's side full on. The police officer and Scott's girlfriend were taken to the hospital with minor injuries. Scott wasn't so lucky; his injuries were devastating.

Scott was admitted to hospital, and within hours his score on the Glasgow coma scale - a neurological scale that measures a person's conscious state - was rapidly dropping. The lowest score possible is three, indicating "does not open eyes", "makes no sounds" and "makes no movements". The highest score, 15, indicates that you are fully awake, conversing normally and obeying commands. Scott was already a four, just one step away from complete shutdown. Despite no outward signs of head or facial injury, the impact of the police car with the side of Scott's car had slammed his brain against the inside of his skull, squeezing it into herniation and bruising it badly.