PDA

View Full Version : Patient In 'Conscious Coma' For 23 Years


D3ath ADder
23-11-2009, 10:53
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 added: 'I screamed, but there was nothing to hear.'

Doctors used a range of coma tests before reluctantly concluding that his consciousness was 'extinct'.

But three years ago, new hi-tech scans showed his brain was still functioning almost completely normally.


Link:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1230092/Patient-trapped-23-year-coma-conscious-along.html#ixzz0Xe0nSvOZ

There is alot more information on the link, but what more is there to say than God damn!.

I have no idea how this guy has coped without interacting with the people around him. The things he has heard over 23 years might have kept him a bit sane, maybe music on a radio or comments between staff over things like 9/11...but damn.
Dexter
23-11-2009, 10:56
Damn that sucks!
JamJam-PBall
23-11-2009, 12:27
that is amazing, and sad at the same time. how could anybody cope in silence and not being able to do anything for that long is astonishing :eek:
Wings
23-11-2009, 12:49
I'm sure I watched an episode of house which ran a similar sort of story....
PaintMagnet
23-11-2009, 12:54
locked in syndrome
tubby
23-11-2009, 16:01
dayyymmm that must of been a b*tch....
tyyyy96
23-11-2009, 20:46
you sed it. imagine that! the video for ` one ` by metallica is basically acting that out i think it was a soundtrack for a film. its about a guy who got shelled and was in a concious coma and he used morse code to tell people to kill him because he's suffering pretty shocking actually
Wings
23-11-2009, 22:21
locked in syndrome

that's the one
Cosford
24-11-2009, 05:43
you sed it. imagine that! the video for ` one ` by metallica is basically acting that out i think it was a soundtrack for a film. its about a guy who got shelled and was in a concious coma and he used morse code to tell people to kill him because he's suffering pretty shocking actually

Gee, love that song. It wasn't so much a soundtrack for the film but it was based on the storyline on the film.
tyyyy96
24-11-2009, 18:43
thats the one =) i love that song too =)
tricky m
24-11-2009, 19:51
how has this gone from some person being in a coma for 23 years. to a song? just try imagine it. laid there since 1986. this is one sad story. thats if he knows whats going on. we can only hope he doesn't.
D3ath ADder
24-11-2009, 21:44
how has this gone from some person being in a coma for 23 years. to a song?

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

It's actually quite relevant to the topic as the songs lyrics describe how the guy feels.

The song is written to 'Johnny Got His Gun' which is about a guy joining the army and getting blown apart but not dying. He has no arms, legs, sight, hearing and cannot talk. He is alive but cannot do or feel anything, only breathe and think.

Quite similar to the guy in the article, apart from the face he was in a car crash, could hear and got better. :D
tricky m
25-11-2009, 17:03
see wat you mean now mate. not heard that before.