The Man Who Proves Doctors Wrong

When doctors said there was nothing more they could do for Emilie Gossiaux, her boyfriend was determined to prove them wrong. A month before the 21-year-old art student had been hit by an 18-wheel semi-trailer while she was riding her bike in Brooklyn, New York.

She was rushed to Bellvue Hospital with multiple fractures to her head, pelvis and left leg. She had suffered a stroke and her heart had stopped for a minute on the operating table.

Miss Gossiaux's chances of survival were 'grim'. Her mother Susan had been told by a nurse that her daughter was gone, and was asked about organ donations the second day after the accident.

Five weeks later and even when she became stable doctors said Miss Gossiaux was not cognitively ready for rehabilitative treatment, and should be transferred to a long-term nursing home in her native New Orleans instead.

Her boyfriend of a year, Alan Lundgard, 21, was not going to give her up without a fight however.

The pair had met in 2006 in Colorado at a summer camp for high school students. They met again a year later as freshman art students at Cooper Union School of Art and got together soon after.

After the accident Mr Lundgard sat at his girlfriend's bedside night after night trying desperately to make her respond.

She had been hearing impaired since she was a child and reliant upon hearing aids. Mrs Gossiaux and her husband Eric and Mr Lundgard also feared the accident had left her blind.

Aware of this Mr Lundgard had been researching the story of deaf and blind author Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan. To communicate, Ms Sullivan would use her finger to spell words on Ms Keller’s palm.

Mr Lundgard decided one night to give the technique a go. He spelled out 'I love you' letter by letter on Miss Gossiaux's palm. Remarkably It worked and she immediately responded with: 'Oh, you love me? That’s so sweet. Thank you.'

'It wasn’t even a conversation,' Mr. Lundgard told the New York Times. 'It was just that one exchange which alerted me to the fact that she was not damaged to such an extent that it was beyond her ability to recover.'

Thrilled he knew that he could now prove to doctors Miss Gossiaux was aware of the world around her. He continued to spell out words and then whole sentences on her palm.

Miss Gossiaux had not been able to wear her cochlear implant or the hearing aid she wore in her other ear due to her injuries since the accident. But when she finally allowed her hearing aid to be put back in it was like a light switch had been turned on. Miss Gossiaux was suddenly back but not without a loss.

Her memory and cognitive function were completely intact, but the trauma had left her blind.

'When she came to, it was like a party in the hospital,' said Mr Lundgard. 'All the nurses came in; they were, like, dancing and screaming.'

She was transferred to the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine in New York where she is still undergoing therapy today.

And there is a small chance she will get her sight back.

'They told me that there was a very small chance, but if there’s a chance, then I’ll believe in it,' Miss Gossiaux told the Times before adding '...and I’ll have hope in it.'

Today her outlook on recovery is that she is simply happy to be living. Despite her loss of vision Miss Gossiaux is certain she will complete her final year at The Cooper Union School of Art.

Mr Lundgard meanwhile is busy raising money and asking people and companies for donations towards his girfriend's $200,000 medical fees. So far the Emilie Gossiaux fund has raised just over $42,000.