The Lynx effect
Coma boy is woken by smell of his deodorant
THE adverts promise it will have women falling at your feet with one spray.
But it seems that Lynx deodorant might have another hidden power.
A boy of 13 suddenly woke up from a nine-day coma after getting a single whiff of his favourite daily scent.
Kacper Krauze was pulled out of the River Eden in Cumbria by emergency services after being submerged for 25 minutes in freezing cold water.
His mother Wioletta Krauze, 43, is convinced the scent acted as a sensory trigger.
She said: ‘It was a miracle. We had tried everything to wake him up. A nurse had suggested I bring in some of his toiletries to wash him with.
‘As soon as I sprayed the Lynx he opened his eyes immediately. He must have remembered that was his favourite smell. He has always absolutely loved Lynx and he still wears it to this day.’
She added: ‘We had tried so hard to get him to wake up from his coma. We had played music, we had spent hours talking to him. But in the end it was the Lynx which did it. I just couldn’t believe it.’ Kacper fell into the water while playing with friends near the river in his home town of Appleby in February.
After receiving a phone call, his mother, father Marek, 50, and brother Karol, 19, raced to the river and found him in the water. Firemen arrived to pull him out and then handed him over to paramedics.
A doctor and crew with the Great North Air Ambulance flew him to hospital.
His heart was restarted and he was given Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) on his arrival at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle.
His blood was passed through a machine that warms it, adds oxygen and removes carbon dioxide before pumping it back into the body.
Doctors believe this was vital in the teenager’s survival, but what actually woke him from the coma is less certain.
Mrs Krauze, a carer, said: ‘He had been brought back to life but he remained in a coma.
‘His condition was very, very bad, I was praying like mad. We were next to him all the time. But it took a can of Lynx to bring him round.’
Mrs Krauze, her taxi driver husband and two children moved to the UK from Poland in 2007.
Kacper still struggles slightly with his speech and using his right hand but otherwise has made a full recovery.
He said: ‘I am really grateful to all the doctors, nurses and the Great North Air Ambulance for saving my life.
‘I have always absolutely loved Lynx. It’s my favourite smell. It always has been. I never thought that it would bring me round from a coma.
‘I will continue to wear it now, always. It’s my lucky charm.’
Research has suggested that stimulating the senses may help a coma patient to recover.
Susan Williams, 66, a nurse for 40 years, said: ‘When patients are in comas, their senses often remain active.
‘The senses of smell, touch and sound are some of the last functions to close down.
‘This is why relatives are encouraged to talk to their loved ones, play music to them and hold their hands.
‘No one will ever know for sure but it is more than possible that a smell as powerful and familiar as Lynx would have stimulated Kacper’s brain and caused him to wake from his coma.’
‘I will continue to wear it, always’