I have a buddy I deployed with who's a paraplegic now, got into a car wreck due to blackout from some stuff that happened to him during a deployment and had some clotting issues after while he was recovering. Long story short, his brain was without oxygen for about twelve minutes, and he lost all motor function and brain function. Bout two weeks ago, he started to respond and regain brain function. Doctors are saying its a miracle, etc, but all he can do so far is smile. I live right next to the care facility they're keeping him at, so I can visit him easily, and wanted to help him. First question: Does anyone have any similar experiences, and what did you do?

Second question: Since he can smile, I was thinking of trying to help him write an email/letter to his family or whoever by using a system where I have a page with letters set up like they are on a cell phone, three columns, three rows, and having him smile when I'm on the right row/column, and then point at the letters for that section and have him smile when I'm at the right one. Can anyone think of a more efficient way of doing this? It's gonna take a while, but if anybody can think up a better and more efficient way of doing this, I'd appreciate the help. He can hear and respond, and process information just fine, so that's not an issue, at least as far as we know yet.

I'm going to see if he can hold his smile long enough to do morse code, and then learn it and teach it to him. If he can hold a long and short smile, that's probably going to be the most efficient route of communicating. Anyway, any suggestions, or experience with similar situations would be helpful.

seriously, thanks in advance.