A man presumed to have been in a deep coma for 23 years has spoken of his "second birth" after doctors realised that he had been fully conscious all along but unable to communicate.

Rom Houben, 46, was paralysed in a car accident that left him in what doctors thought was a persistent vegetative state. In fact he remained aware of his surroundings and could hear medical staff gradually give up hope on him.

Researchers using new scanning techniques discovered that his brain was still active and trained him to use his right forefinger to express himself on a specially adapted keyboard.

His case is being highlighted in his native Belgium by doctors who are pioneering new ways of understanding coma victims, hundreds of whom around the world could be conscious but locked in paralysis – and, unlike a true coma patient, able to feel pain.

"I shall never forget the day when they discovered what was truly wrong with me – it was my second birth," Mr Houben tapped out on his custom-built keyboard at the nursing home east of Brussels where he is given constant care.

"All that time I just literally dreamt of a better life. Frustration is too small a word to describe what I felt."

Mr Houben, an engineering student and martial arts expert, had been written off as in an "extinct" state after he was seriously injured in a car crash in 1983.

He "woke up" three years ago thanks to coma specialists at the University of Liege who have spoken about the case for the first time to try to draw attention to the condition and save other misdiagnosed patients.

Mr Houben recalled the terrifying realisation after he came round from his accident when he knew that he had lost complete control of his body – but no one knew that he was fully conscious.

"I screamed, but there was nothing to hear," he told the German magazine Der Speigel.

"I became a witness to my own suffering as doctors and nurses tried to speak with me until they gave up all hope."

Asked how he passed the time for 23 years, he said: "I meditated – I dreamt myself away."

His bed has been equipped with a book holder above his face so that he can read while lying down.

Doctors had given up on Mr Houben because he showed no physical reaction to various stimulus including loud hand-clapping and familiar voices.

Dr Steven Laureys, a neurological researcher at the Liege University Hospital, discovered using brain scanning techniques that Mr Houben's cerebral cortext was still active and he was able to start rehabilitation after years of being dismissed as comatose.

"Anyone who bears the stamp of unconscious just one time hardly ever gets rid of it again," Dr Laureys said. "Medical advances caught up with him."


This is sad and really serious, Do you think that hospitals should do periodic tests on these "vegetables"?
I just read a related article (skimmed it) and I think the general idea was that up to 40% of people in "coma's" could be fully paralysed, awake people.

Indeed, I can't imagine a worse kind of hell. Just thinking of what he must have gone through makes me feel terrible.

Unfortunately, I have no doubt that he is not the only one.

I'm as well

That must be horrible. They should probably do more tests on people in "comas" just to check.

they probably normally do, whilst it's bad it's probably a very very very minute case lol.

That, and all this started 20-odd years ago with less sophisticated checking.