Patient in 23-year 'coma' was conscious all along

posted December 26, 2009

A car crash victim who was believed to have been in a coma for the past 23 years has been conscious the whole time.

Rom Houben was paralysed but could not let doctors know that he could hear every word they were saying, reports the Daily Mail.

"I dreamed myself away," said Mr Houben, now 46, who doctors thought was in a persistent vegatative state.

Doctors conducted a series of coma tests before concluding that his consciousness was "extinct".
But three years ago, new hi-tech scans showed his brain was still functioning almost completely normally. the rest