http://www.guardian.co.uk...a-23-years

For 23 years Rom Houben was ­imprisoned in his own body. He saw his doctors and nurses as they visited him during their daily rounds; he listened to the conversations of his carers; he heard his mother deliver the news to him that his father had died. But he could do nothing. He was unable to communicate with his doctors or family. He could not move his head or weep, he could only listen.

Doctors presumed he was in a vegetative state following a near-fatal car crash in 1983. They believed he could feel nothing and hear nothing. For 23 years.

Then a neurologist, Steven Laureys, who decided to take a radical look at the state of diagnosed coma patients, released him from his torture. Using a state-of-the-art scanning system, Laureys found to his amazement that his brain was functioning almost normally.

"I had dreamed myself away," said Houben, now 46, whose real "state" was discovered three years ago, according to a report in the German magazine Der Spiegel this week.

Laureys, a neurologist at the ­University of Liege in Belgium, published a study in BMC Neurology earlier this year saying Houben could be one of many cases of falsely diagnosed comas around the world. He discovered that although Houben was completely paralysed, he was also completely conscious — it was just that he was unable to communicate the fact.

Houben now communicates with one finger and a special touchscreen on his wheelchair – he has developed some movement with the help of intense physiotherapy over the last three years.

He realised when he came round after his accident, which had caused his heart to stop and his brain to be starved of oxygen for several minutes, that his body was paralysed. Although he could hear every word his doctors spoke, he could not communicate with them.

"I screamed, but there was nothing to hear," he said, via his keyboard.

The Belgian former engineering student, who speaks four languages, said he coped with being effectively trapped in his own body by meditating. He told doctors he had "travelled with my thoughts into the past, or into another existence altogether". Sometimes, he said, "I was only my consciousness and nothing else".

The moment it was discovered he was not in a vegetative state, said Houben, was like being born again. "I'll never forget the day that they discovered me," he said. "It was my second birth".

Experts say Laureys' findings are likely to reopen the debate over when the decision should be made to terminate the lives of those in comas who appear to be unconscious but may have almost fully-functioning brains.

Belgian doctors used an internationally-accepted scale to monitor Houben's state over the years. Known as the Glasgow Coma Scale, it requires assessment of the eyes, verbal and motor responses. But they failed to assess him correctly and missed signs that his brain was still functioning.

Last night his mother, Fina, said in an interview with Belgian RTBF that they had taken him to the US five times for reexamination. The breakthrough came when it became clear that Houben could indicate yes and no with his foot.
"Powerlessness. Utter powerlessness. At first I was angry, then I learned to live with it," he tapped out on to the screen during an interview with the Belgian network last night, AP reported.

Laureys, who is head of the Coma Science Group and department of neurology at Liege University hospital, has advised on several prominent coma cases, such as the American Terri Schiavo, whose life support was withdrawn in 2005 after 15 years in a coma.

Laureys concluded that coma patients are misdiagnosed "on a disturbingly regular basis". He examined 44 patients believed to be in a vegetative state, and found that 18 of them responded to communication.

"Once someone is labelled as being without consciousness, it is very hard to get rid of that," he told Der Spiegel.

He said patients suspected of being in a non-reversible coma should be "tested 10 times" and that comas, like sleep, have different stages and need to be monitored.

Houben hopes to write a book detailing his trauma and his "rebirth".

Damn, I couldn't even imagine living like this.

Yeah, I really hate this story.

Damn..maybe Terri Schiavo didn't have to die after all...

noimageatall said:

I think this doctor saw her and confirmed she was in a vegetative state. Shit, even if I wasn't I sure wouldn't wanna live like this for 23 years.

SCNDLS said:

Did he try this test? And who knows? Maybe he won't be paralyzed forever. Stranger things have happened.

SCNDLS said:

This is the most remarkable story I've read in a long time. It sounds terrifying but the thing that caught my attention is how he was able to exist as pure consciousness and have a life without the use of his physical body. That's truly amazing!

Think how incredibly grounded a person he must be not to have lost his mind in all those years when he was basically dead to the world. How did he do it?

Damn, I hope he does write a book.

noimageatall said:

Indeed. I've read that even when people are dying that hearing is the very last sense lost. I think there's still a helluva lot we don't know about various states of consciousness.

babynoz said:

It really is, but a frightening prospect to me at the same time.

SCNDLS said:

I know...I can't even imagine.

I've even read about cases where people are in surgery and feel all the pain but can't tell anybody because they're paralyzed by the anesthesia. I don't even wanna think about that either.

I couldn't read all of it, it's too scary.

babynoz said:

Okay, STOP!

But really, the strength of mind someone must have to just go inside themselves and not go insane, is astounding. The only thing I can relate it to is being in solitary confinement and prisoners usually start going crazy after after a few weeks alone.

SCNDLS said:

Yeah, a person could freak out just thinking about this stuff. What about those people who spend hours in those sensory deprivations chambers? That's deep too.

no way

to read and imagine being that way for many years.

that's cool what he says about the meditation and stuff tho.

is this unreal or what.....I would never want to be left like that....just kill me already! dayum!

matthewgrant said:

That's what got my attention...how he was able to develop a life independent of his body for so long. Meditation is the only way somebody could maintain that.

babynoz said:

TWENTY-THREE YEARS!

As someone that used to have sleep paralysis (for just a few seconds at the most... this sounds like HELL.

My paralyzed brother in law Noum communicates mainly by flipping the bird.

He can also mouth some words, and very slowly move his forearms. Mainly he just give us the 'khwoy' (penis) though, i.e. middle finger.

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[Edited 11/23/09 21:58pm]

What is truly heartwrenching is that it is likely that he was probably only staring at a white ceiling....was there a radio? the sound of a TV? OMG...the stuff this man must have overheard.....

So he could say something but the doctors could not hear him?

an amazing story! i can't imagine the things he over heard doctors and others saying...

Just makes me sad for Teri Schiavo. But her husband wanted her dead and of course we females are just our husband's property in the end so wutevs.


Carry On.

DesireeNevermind said:

That's exactly what I was thinking. The first thing that came to my mind.

japanrocks said:

That came to my mind when I first saw this thread

what a sad story,if he does decide to write a book I will buy it. This story reminds of a movie called AWAKE. Its about a man who is about to have sum kind of heart surgery and the doctors put the man in anestesia and the guy is awake the whole time and he can feel whats happening but cant say anything or do anything physically.

dance4me3121 said:

Yeah I saw this movie too. It was wild.