Man "wakes up" after 23 years in coma, but not really in coma.

[JamieO]

An engineering student thought to be in a coma for 23 years was actually conscious the whole time, it has emerged.

Rom Houben was misdiagnosed as being in a vegetative state after a car crash left him totally paralyzed.

But, in actuality, he was trapped in his own body the whole time with no way of letting friends and family know he could hear every word they were saying.

The 46-year-old, who can now tap out computerized messages and read books on a device above his hospital bed, has revealed: "I screamed, but there was nothing to hear.

"All that time I literally dreamed of a better life. Frustration is too small a word to describe what I felt," he 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 life now people know I am not dead."

His misdiagnosis was discovered by neurological expert, Dr. Steven Laureys, who fears there may be similar cases all over the world.

He looked at Houben's case again at the University of Liege, Belgium, using state-of-the-art imaging that showed the patient was aware of what was happening around him even though he had lost control of his body.

Laureys, who leads the Coma Science Group, was unavailable for comment when contacted by Sky News Online.

He told the Daily Telegraph: "In Germany alone each year some 100,000 people suffer from severe traumatic brain injury.

"About 20,000 are followed by a coma of three weeks or longer. Some of them die, others regain health," he continued. But an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 people a year, remain trapped in an intermediate stage: they go on living without ever come back again."

I can't imagine what that would have been like.  This story totally freaked me out.

[ELROSS]

I can't imagine what that would have been like.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzgGTTtR0kc

[FooFa]

Until recently everyone thought that he was basically dead but he says that he's ready to chat with friends on the computer. Can you imagine the damage to the body after being immobile that long...All those visits from-"My name is Buck..."

[IamZ]

If there's a way to induce the state like for a few days I'd like to try it.

[Iceman2469]

If there's a way to induce the state like for a few days I'd like to try it.

I know a website, if you dont /forum it, it has been known to cause people to go into deep coma's

[Silva]

If there's a way to induce the state like for a few days I'd like to try it.

I know a website, if you dont /forum it, it has been known to cause people to go into deep coma's

Is that this one?

http://twitter.com/iceman2469 ??

[AM]

See, finally proof we should just go ahead and kill everyone in a coma, because after all they are trapped in their own prison, which is very similar to a My Own Prison, which is a Creed song, therefore that sucks. 

[FooFa]

If there's a way to induce the state like for a few days I'd like to try it.

The late MJ really enjoyed the Propofil for sleeping.

[JamieO]

I can't even begin to wrap my head around this. But it's friggin incredible.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-10447657-247.html?tag=mncol;posts


Moreover one of the patients, a 29-year-old in Belgium asked to answer questions indicating "yes" by thinking about tennis and "no" by mentally touring his own home, answered every single question about his life--from his father's name to whether he had siblings--correctly.
"He could produce no communication with his body, but he could systematically and repeatedly change his brain activity to indicate 'yes' or 'no' with 100 percent accuracy," Owen says. "These are patients who are totally unable to perform functions with their bodies--even blink an eye or move an eyebrow--but yet are entirely conscious. It's quite distressing, really, to realize this."

[baybee33]

I can't even begin to wrap my head around this. But it's friggin incredible.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-10447657-247.html?tag=mncol;posts


Moreover one of the patients, a 29-year-old in Belgium asked to answer questions indicating "yes" by thinking about tennis and "no" by mentally touring his own home, answered every single question about his life--from his father's name to whether he had siblings--correctly.
"He could produce no communication with his body, but he could systematically and repeatedly change his brain activity to indicate 'yes' or 'no' with 100 percent accuracy," Owen says. "These are patients who are totally unable to perform functions with their bodies--even blink an eye or move an eyebrow--but yet are entirely conscious. It's quite distressing, really, to realize this."

Wow - it hurts my heart to even imagine being stuck in such a state that there is nothing you can do or say but your mind is working - screaming but cannot be heard - very scary....

[SomaCowJ]

Wow - it hurts my heart to even imagine being stuck in such a state that there is nothing you can do or say but your mind is working - screaming but cannot be heard - very scary....

I have been interested in this topic since reading Stephen King's "The Dead Zone" many years ago, where the main character comes out of a coma after several years.

My current feeling is: I would rather be "conscious" like these guys were, so at least I could keep up with what was going on with my loved ones, and the world around me, than to be in a "true" coma and wake up having no idea that the grown man in front of me was my son who was a baby the last time I knew of him, having missed out on his entire life up to that point, and to have no idea what those little devices are that everyone is carrying around typing into and talking on. This, of course, assumes that my son had visited me over the years, and that people used cellphones around me.

I'm not saying that there wouldn't be significant downsides to the "conscious" type of coma.