The incredible story of Jake Haendel

In May 2017, a newly married Jake Haendel had "everything going for him"...when he was told he had a few months to live.

• Following a few weeks of odd symptoms, he had received the devastating diagnosis of acute toxic leukoencephalopathy (ATL), a rare and often fatal brain disease caused by exposure to toxic substances.
• “I woke up and there was a whole team of people in the room,” he recalls of the moment he found out of his condition. “A doctor was sitting on the foot of my bed, put his hand on my knee and was like, ‘Jacob, we're extremely sorry. You have a rare terminal and progressive brain illness.'” 
• He was given six months to live.

Over the next few months, Jake deteriorated rapidly, first losing his ability to walk, then speak. Within six months, he was bedridden and believed to be in a coma. December was the first time Jake heard someone refer to him as “brain dead.”

Wait… isn’t this Positive DONUT? 

Here's where it gets better. Jake lived in his coma-like state for ten months, but what doctors didn’t know was that his brain was still fully intact.

• Jake was suffering from “locked-in syndrome,” a condition in which the brain loses access to all muscles in the body except for the eyes. He could still fully hear, think, and feel – but was “locked” in his body.

No one other than Jake knew. And he made it his goal to get out.

Around a year after his initial diagnosis, Jake found the strength to move his wrist. One of his doctors noticed and asked him to do it again. “I kind of had this rush go through me and I was like, ‘Wow, this is my one and only shot,’” he told People. "I tensed up my entire body and I didn't think it was working, but then I heard, ‘Wow, he is actually doing it.’”

💪 From there, Jake started seeing progress every day. He learned how to use a letter board to communicate using eye movements. The first thing he said to his doctors was “I can hear you.” The first thing he said to his family was “I love you.”

Fast-forward to today, and Jake has made almost a full recovery. He’s one of only a handful of people to ever recover from locked-in syndrome.

• He’s now dedicated his life to disability awareness and accessibility, creating an app called Ahoi that helps users with disabilities find places that meet their specific needs, like accessible parking, entry ramps, elevators, automatic doors, etc.
• “I have such a different perspective on what's important in life. And going through what I went through has definitely made me stronger,” he told People. “It feels amazing and a big part of why I'm telling my story and have this company is to help people and help the world.”