dr. julian bales was mccloy's neurosurgeon. >> the concept was in trying to rebuild his brain with what he was made from when he was an embryo in his mother's womb. >> reporter: rebuild his brain? >> yes. we gave him a very high, unprecedented dose to make sure we saturated and got high levels in the brain. >> i'd just like to thank everybody for their thoughts and prayers. >> reporter: after the fish oil, mccloy made a dramatic, full recovery. the science is not clear. there have been no large studies, and it didn't always seem to work. but despite that, grant virgin's family, a combination of desperate and determined, decided to give it a try. >> i don't want to wait 20 years while they do a bunch of more studies to prove it really works. i don't need that. >> reporter: grant was given 20 grams of fish oil per day through his feeding tube. even more than randy mccloy got. in december 2012, nine weeks after his accident, and only two