Man was awake through a 23-year 'coma'

A Belgian man who was thought to be in a vegetative state for 23 years was actually conscious the whole time but could not communicate with doctors.

The Daily Mail reports that Rom Houben, who was 23 in 1983 when a car crash left him paralyzed, described his life as a nightmare as he lay in bed able to hear doctors but unable to tell them his brain was functioning.

Three years ago, new hi-tech scans showed Houben's brain was still functioning almost completely normally, and after extensive therapy, he is able to communicate using a computer and a special device that allows him to read books.

"I screamed, but there was nothing to hear," Houben explained through a computer. "I dreamed myself away."

Houben, now 46, added that he was given new life the moment doctors realized he was conscious.

"I shall never forget the day when they discovered what was truly wrong with me -- it was my second birth," he said.

Doctors used the internationally accepted Glasgow Coma Scale to assess Houben's eye, verbal and motor responses several times over the 23-year ordeal, but each time he was graded incorrectly.

Houben's case has recently been documented in a scientific paper released by the man who "saved" him, top neurological expert Dr. Steven Laureys. Laureys claims that patients classed as in a vegetative state are often misdiagnosed, and believes that there may be many more cases like Houben's around the world.

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

Although he is likely to spend the rest of his life in the hospital, Houben is looking forward to communicating with the world.

"I want to read, talk with my friends via the computer and enjoy my life now that people know I am not dead," he said.

Comas generally last a few days to a few weeks. They rarely last more than two to five weeks but some have lasted as long as several years. Outcomes range from recovery to death.

After 19 years in a minimally conscious state, Terry Wallis of Arkansas spontaneously began speaking and regained awareness of his surroundings in 2003. Similarly, Polish railroad worker Jan Grzebski woke up from a 19-year coma in 2007.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the longest period spent in coma was by Elaine Esposito. She did not wake up after being anesthetized for an appendectomy on Aug. 6, 1941, at age 6. She died on Nov. 25, 1978 at age 43, having been in a coma for 37 years 111 days.