A man, whom doctors believed was in a vegetative state following a car crash, was actually concious for the whole of his 23-year spell in a ‘coma’.
Rom Houben, now 46, was left paralysed following a car crash in 1983. Doctors then misdiagnosed him as in a vegetative state. He had no way of letting anyone know he could hear every word they were saying. ‘I screamed, but there was nothing to hear,’ said Mr Houben.
Doctors originally used a variety of coma tests, used worldwide, before concluding his conciousness as ‘extinct’. Three years ago, however, hi-tech scans revealed his brain as functioning normally. Mr Houbens case was only revealed last night, when it was detailed in a scientific paper released by top neurological expert Dr Steven Laureys.
Dr Laureys claims there may be many similar cases of other misdiagnosed comas, worldwide.
Mr Houben is never likely to leave the hospital, but he now has a computer with which he can communicate, as well as a system allowing him to read books.
‘I shall never forget the day when they discovered what was truly wrong with me – it was my second birth,’ Mr Houben said. ‘I want to read, talk with my friends via the computer and enjoy my life now that people know I am not dead.’
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