He got locked-in syndrome as a result of his drug addiction, leaving him bed ridden for almost a year

Jake Haendel once faced a lot of people’s worst nightmares when he suffered from ‘locked-in syndrome’ for almost a year.

The 36-year-old from Boston, Massachusetts, USA, was in a paralytic state where he could not speak or communicate for 10 months, as a result of his heroin addiction.

A party animal in his youth, he also struggled with depression and insomnia, turning to drinking and drugs as he got older, describing himself as a ‘high-functioning’ addict.

This would later result in him getting locked-in syndrome (LIS), a rare neurological disorder that causes paralysis of all voluntary muscles except those controlling eye movement and blinking.

It horrifyingly meant that he was conscious, but could not move or speak.

In May 2017, Jake started to display some unusual symptoms, such as a higher pitched voice which other people pointed out to him, explaining that he also started to ‘swerve’, and also eventually would start losing his balance while walking.

“I’d have to like put my hands up for the walls on the side to keep my balance he went to get checked out,” he recalled to Inside.

Health professionals got him checked for stroke-like symptoms, though he was sceptical as the symptoms were happening for weeks.

Doctors said that he had a terminal brain condition, giving him six months to live, telling him that within three to four months, he would lose the ability to swallow and talk, losing the ability to walk or even sit upright prior to that.

They explained that he would quickly decline, and that no-one survives, and before long, he was declared brain dead…. Edittion in YouTube