Woman with locked-in syndrome earns degree by blinking through exams

ITV News Midlands Reporter Ben Chapman reports

A woman has earned a degree in Ancient History despite having locked-in syndrome.

It took Dawn Faizey-Webster three weeks to complete her exams as she had to blink to communicate her answers.

Dawn, 42, has locked-in syndrome which means she can see, think, hear and feel normally but remains unable to move or talk, apart from slight movements of her head and her eye lids.

She was left unable to walk or talk two weeks after her son Alexander was born in June 2003, when she was aged just 30.

However the former teacher discovered she could still communicate through her eyes and tiny head movements.

Now Dawn has written an autobiography and achieved a 2:2 degree in Ancient History using a specialised laptop that translates her eye movements into text.

Living at her parents home in Rugeley, Staffordshire, she started her degree in 2008, determined not to be beaten by her condition.

Finishing the Open University qualification was not easy as Dawn's fastest writing pace of 50 words per hour has meant that each three hour exam took her three weeks to complete.

Dawn worked three-hours a day on the degree, nudging buttons either side of her head to move the curser on the screen and blinking to register the letters.

Now she has completed the course with honours and is now hoping to tackle a Masters in History of Art as a follow up.

Dawn's living nightmare started when she was rushed to hospital at 26-weeks pregnant and was diagnosed with potentially fatal pre-eclampsia.

She deteriorated over six days until her tiny baby had to be delivered by emergency cesarean weighing just 1lb 8oz.

A week later Dawn returned home still suffering high blood pressure, but was told she would be fine.

But after another week, Dawn woke in the night feeling dizzy and slurring her words.

Over the following week, Dawn drifted in and out of consciousness but was unable to move or talk. Her condition got so bad her eye muscles even were paralysed.

She listened, motionless, while her family discussed her condition and doctors told her husband to prepare for the worst.

A breakthrough came when she was finally able to blink, and let her father Alec know she was still inside her broken body.

She was then fitted with the laptop that allowed her to communicate.