jason crigler

July 6 (Bloomberg) -- If you’re looking for a megadose of inspiration, Jason Crigler may be your man.

The New York guitarist/singer, who has performed with Norah Jones and Rufus Wainwright, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 34 during a 2004 performance in Manhattan. His unbelievable recovery is chronicled in “Life. Support. Music.,” which airs tomorrow on PBS at 10 p.m. New York time.

When it comes to comebacks, Crigler rivals Lazarus.

During his fateful gig, Crigler suddenly looked confused and rushed from the stage to his wife Monica, who was two months pregnant.

“I need help, I need help,” he pleaded.

They went outside, where he gently lay down on the sidewalk. Being whisked away in an ambulance, he recalls, “is the last thing I remember for a year and a half.”

Jason had little brain function when he got to the hospital, and doctors offered little hope of him regaining even basic abilities. Over the next several months muscles deteriorated and the fingers that once danced along his guitar neck curled into a tight knot.

Filmmaker Eric Daniel Metzgar, a friend of Crigler’s, interviewed family members, music colleagues and doctors during the recovery. He also includes video shot during therapy sessions at Boston’s Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, where Crigler transferred after six months in acute care.

Insurance Cap

The pictures are shocking and heartrending: Crigler’s mouth is wide open and his eyes bulge, as if he had just been speared in the back.

“Scientifically, he wasn’t there,” says Dr. Christopher Carter, who treated Crigler.

To his family, however, Crigler was anything but gone. After reaching the $1 million cap on his medical insurance, they moved him to a private residence near Monica’s parents home in Boston and took responsibility for his round-the-clock care. They provided constant mental and physical stimulation: playing music, reading to him, and helping him walk and exercise.

Without the aid of new drugs or cutting-edge treatment, the old Jason slowly began to re-emerge. Perhaps the biggest miracle was when he resumed playing the guitar, initially picking out a small progression of notes, which he repeated incessantly.

Birthday Show

Monica, who is remarkably unsentimental, says the smallest advances “were miraculous.” She came to “see the beauty in sadness and hardship,” though she adds that she is “not trying to romanticize” the situation.

While Crigler isn’t a household name, he has shared the stage with John Cale,Linda Thompson, Marshall Crenshaw and Jones, who in an interview says his loss created “a big hole in the community.”

Crigler’s comeback came in increments -- a cameo at a friend’s gig, then a set and finally, on his 36th birthday, a full show at a favorite Manhattan venue,The Living Room.

“I think I’m OK,” Crigler mused as he tuned up. The crowd couldn’t have been happier if John, George, Paul and Ringo had materialized on stage.

“Something exceptional and quite indescribable occurred,” Metzgar says.

It’s impossible not to be astounded watching Crigler play and sing, considering the dismal wreck of a man we recall from the therapy videos.

His family believes he’s 90 percent recovered, though his sense of humor couldn’t get much better. In a bit of stage bantering, Crigler calls the hemorrhage “quite an experience” during which he met doctors who told him he would never walk or play the guitar.

“Luckily, I proved them all wrong,” he says.