Patient trapped in a 23-year 'coma' was conscious all along

Xenophon

Gone and forgotten
Nov 27, 2008
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In your head
This would be my ultimate nightmare, unable to move, communicate, do anything for 23 years!

I would have long ago gone insane.

Patient trapped in a 23-year 'coma' was conscious all along | Mail Online

A car crash victim diagnosed as being in a coma for the past 23 years has been conscious the whole time.
Rom Houben was paralysed but had no way of letting doctors know that he could hear every word they were saying.
'I dreamed myself away,' said Mr Houben, now 46, who doctors thought was in a persistent vegatative state.
 
This would be my ultimate nightmare, unable to move, communicate, do anything for 23 years!

I would have long ago gone insane.

Patient trapped in a 23-year 'coma' was conscious all along | Mail Online

A car crash victim diagnosed as being in a coma for the past 23 years has been conscious the whole time.
Rom Houben was paralysed but had no way of letting doctors know that he could hear every word they were saying.
'I dreamed myself away,' said Mr Houben, now 46, who doctors thought was in a persistent vegatative state.
this is my worst nightmare actually. It is like the Hitchcock film where the guy was alive but they thought he was dead.
 
You mean this guy couldn't use his eyes to blink or to get someone's attention?
 
Laid in bed, unable to move his head, all he could do was stare at the ceiling.

Its monstrous.

I agree with you. I'd have gone crazy long ago.

He probably did, but it's not like he could do anything about it. I just hope they left some music or TV on for the poor guy all those years. Could you imagine...23 years of silence?

No, I couldnt. Couldnt even BEGIN to imagine it.
 
This would be my ultimate nightmare, unable to move, communicate, do anything for 23 years!

I would have long ago gone insane.

Patient trapped in a 23-year 'coma' was conscious all along | Mail Online

A car crash victim diagnosed as being in a coma for the past 23 years has been conscious the whole time.
Rom Houben was paralysed but had no way of letting doctors know that he could hear every word they were saying.
'I dreamed myself away,' said Mr Houben, now 46, who doctors thought was in a persistent vegatative state.
He is never likely to leave hospital, but as well as his computer he now has a special device above his bed which lets him read books while lying down.
Mr Houben said: 'I shall never forget the day when they discovered what was truly wrong with me - it was my second birth.
'I want to read, talk with my friends via the computer and enjoy my life now that people know I am not dead.'
I feel so sorry also for his friends and family who were unable to communicate with him for 23 years.
He must be an incredibly strong and emotionally stable person.
It must have been very lonely.
 
I wonder how many times this guy wished to just die.
I'm sure we'll here more from him. What he experienced was on par with solitary confinement. People who survive that often had coping strategies and were very disciplined.
I find it touching that he seems to be really happy and excited about being "reborn again" yet the sad fact still remains that he is paralyzed. He had to cope with that all on his own, no moral support from anyone.

Maybe members of his family or friends did visit him and talk to him in hopes he could hear them as is sometimes the case when people are in comas. If they did it must have done much to keep him sane and hopeful.
 
You mean this guy couldn't use his eyes to blink or to get someone's attention?
From what it says, that appears to be the case.

They thought he was a vegtable.

veg-person.jpg
 

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