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

mattheman · 22 Nov 2009 at 23:53

man thought by doctors to be in a vegetative state for 23 years was actually conscious the whole time, it was revealed last night.
Student Rom Houben was misdiagnosed after a car crash left him totally paralysed.
He had no way of letting experts, family or friends know he could hear every word they said.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/wor...-year-coma-conscious-along.html#ixzz0XdT0cuRc

man that must have been crazy, being able to hear but not move or say anything.

mrk · 22 Nov 2009 at 23:56

That tilt shift effect on the opening photo is amazing!

Also, medical science has advanced quite a bit!

Solus · 22 Nov 2009 at 23:58

That's purgatory, I can't imagine anything worse.

Mik3 · 22 Nov 2009 at 23:58

That's hell x10

Hotwired · 22 Nov 2009 at 23:59

****

23 years paralysed, concious and unable to communicate.

****

I'd turn into a bloody vegetable after driving myself insane.

arknor · 22 Nov 2009 at 23:59

wow must have been like an endless nightmare , im suprised he didnt go insane

Greenlizard0 · 23 Nov 2009 at 00:00

That's horrendous.

Andelusion · 23 Nov 2009 at 00:00

That's a fate worse than death. It's beyond the scope of my imagination at least to try and picture how day to day life would be like that, it's similar to imagining the scale of the universe.

I'm surprised he isn't severally mentally handicapped after an ordeal like that. I hope he had visitors who would talk to him for a while, I imagine you'd come to cherish that.

Hamster · 23 Nov 2009 at 00:02

mrk said:
That tilt shift effect on the opening photo is amazing!

Also, medical science has advanced quite a bit!

I believe it's not an effect, it's a rotating bed which relieves the pressure from the lungs.

arknor · 23 Nov 2009 at 00:03

JoeMama said:
I believe it's not an effect, it's a rotating bed.

yea probably stop the need for a nurse to move his body about to stop bed sores

V4NT0M · 23 Nov 2009 at 00:03

Do you think they had the TV on in his room.

andy_mk3 · 23 Nov 2009 at 00:04

Wow that must have been awful! You just can't imagine it.

Hamster · 23 Nov 2009 at 00:07

arknor said:
yea probably stop the need for a nurse to move his body about to stop bed sores

You can see him fully strapped into the bed. It's to relieve pressure from the lungs to allow his blood to be oxygenated more easily.

Xordium · 23 Nov 2009 at 00:07

Well if the article is true their criteria for him being in a coma was very faulty and they used the wrong tests. Also why go back to this case anyway to retest with new imaging? There must have been some indication. Why was he kept alive all those years when in their opinion he was beyond hope. An interesting story for sure but it does not all add up.

GreatAuk · 23 Nov 2009 at 00:09

Mik3 said:
That's hell x10

x10^2^2^2^2

geekyEd · 23 Nov 2009 at 00:10

Like on House, that episode was very clever, such a scary thought.

Sawell · 23 Nov 2009 at 00:10

There's a medical term for this. I believe it's called marriage.

Xordium · 23 Nov 2009 at 00:11

And the tilt is more to do with protecting the skin. The person who is in that picture is attached to a ventilator therefore the pressure that the ventilator is exerting keeps the lungs open.

Stewy · 23 Nov 2009 at 00:11

That's reallly horrible

BigglesPiP · 23 Nov 2009 at 00:11

WOW. I don't envy that man.