Paralyzed for 7 years, man says his first words on Twitter

Each day, many, many people access the popular microblogging service, Twitter, to convey all sorts of messages and share moments, but among them, there's a first timer and he's special in more ways than one. Tony Nicklinson suffered a major stroke seven years ago, when on a business trip to Athens and the incident left his body completely paralyzed. Nicklinson joined Twitter (username @TonyNicklinson), recently and in what were his first words on the popular microblog, he wrote - "Hello world. I am tony nicklinson, I have locked-in syndrome and this is my first ever tweet." Nicklinson, owing to the stroke he suffered seven years ago, can only move his eyes now and he wrote the tweet by using a special eye movement technology.

Hello world! (Image credit: Getty Images)

Reportedly, in less than 24 hours of writing that tweet, Nicklinson had earned himself almost 2,500 followers, reports The Guardian. 57-year old, Nicklinson, who suffers from locked-in syndrome reportedly uses a computer that follows his eye movements. The software converts his eye movements to the letters of the alphabet and then turns them into words and speech. "Channel 4's Dispatches captured the moment on film ahead of a programme about Nicklinson's life to be broadcast on Monday 18 June at 8pm," added the report. Incidentally, on the same day, Nicklinson and his family plan to approach the high court "to argue that a doctor should be allowed lawfully to end his life."

Father of two grown-up daughters, Nicklinson who once led an active life, now sees his life as "dull, miserable, demeaning, undignified and intolerable." According to this report, he now seeks to end his "indignity", and for this he requires the court to "grant declarations" allowing a doctor to end his suffering with his consent and "with him making the decision with full mental capacity, and have a "common law defence of necessity" against any murder charge."