Belgian coma man actually awake for 23 years
Belgian man thought to be in coma for 23 years was actually awake but paralysed
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Monday, 23, Nov 2009 12:42
By inthenews.co.uk staff.
A Belgian man who was thought to be in a coma for 23 years was actually awake the whole time.
Rom Houben was unable to tell friends and family that he could hear them because he was paralysed, rather than being in a vegetative state as thought.
Mr Houben was left paralysed after a car crash in 1983. His true condition was only discovered three years ago when doctors at Belgium's University of Liege looked at his case again. Now the man who discovered he was awake has released a paper on the diagnosis.
Mr Houben, now 46, said: "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.
"I shall never forget the day when they discovered what was truly wrong with me - it was my second birth."
Therapy now means he is able to tap out messages on a computer screen and he has a special device above his bed which enables him to read books while lying down.
Liege neurological expert Dr Steven Laureys reviewed Mr Houben's condition. He said: "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.
"But an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 people a year, remain trapped in an intermediate stage - they go on living without ever coming back again."
Mr Houben, being treated near Brussels, has now declared: "I want to read, talk with my friends via the computer and enjoy life now people know I am not dead."
He remains in constant care at a facility near Brussels.