19 years in coma and he woke up

QuenGalad · Post by **QuenGalad** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 5:22 am

I haven't thought about posting that, but Tricky PM'd me about the man. He spent 19 years in coma, and has woke up recently.

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Pole wakes up from 19-year coma

Anyone seen "Goodbye Lenin" ?

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 10:00 am

Fascinating. What's the longest recorded coma? I've heard of a couple of years before, but nothing anywhere near eighteen years.

.....

Time is the best general predictor of a chance of recovery: after 4 months of coma caused by brain damage, the chance of recovery is less than 15%, and of full recovery is very low. - Wikipedia

Seems the record is [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Wallis"]nineteen years[/url]. What´s interesting is that happened fairly recently in 2003.

QuenGalad · Post by **QuenGalad** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 11:40 am

I don't know about records, but it should be easy to find out.

I wonder how he's gonna live from now on... I mean, he's got eleven grandchildren and his own kids are pretty grown up now... his wife is quite old too, and worn from all the work she had. Still, I hope he'll enjoy those years he "got back"

Curry · Post by **Curry** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 2:21 pm

QuenGalad wrote:
Anyone seen "Goodbye Lenin" ?

Bad movie but the concept is interesting

kyle · Post by **kyle** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 2:48 pm

"Do Sonny and Cher still have that awful variety program?"
"Actually, he's a congressman, and she won an Oscar."
"Good night." [instantly dies]

- Simpsons

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 5:10 pm

What put him under and what brought him out?

kagemusha · Post by **kagemusha** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 6:04 pm

Curry wrote:Bad movie but the concept is interesting

Actually, I think it's a good movie...Yeah, good hint Galad, that reminded me as well to it...

One thought I really loved by this dude, something like "stores are full, and everybody got a cellphone, they're so rich these days, but they look unhappy..."

That tells it all...

Ode to a Grasshopper · Tue Jun 05, 2007 5:54 am

If it'd been Odie in the 18-year coma...

*wakes up*
*looks around*
*turns over and goes back "to sleep" for 'just a few more months'*

QuenGalad · Post by **QuenGalad** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 6:02 am

Craig wrote:What put him under and what brought him out?

He was put under by a brain injury which resulted from a railway accident (details unknown). Nobody knows why he awoke, or why now, but he's probably going to get resonably well. He's already walking, and that was quite suprising.

TheAmazingOopah · Post by **TheAmazingOopah** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 6:56 am

Thanks for sharing this story, that's a nice one. This must especially be great for the relatives and friends of the man; to have a close one who is in a coma for 19 years wake up, and become (more or less) his old self again must be a fantastic experience. I guess for the man himself it is less fun, since he has missed so much years and since the world as already changed quite a bit. Being in a coma (and waking up) must be the closest thing to actual time travel. I wouldn't mind experiencing that, though it has of course it's mentioned setbacks. Then again, I guess that when the man has realised his luck, he'll be very thankful to be awake and walking again.

Good thing for bringing up Goodbye Lenin, that is indeed a comparable concept The whole story also reminds me of Awakenings, with Robert De Niro and Robin Williams. It's about a patient (De Niro) who gets some kind of rare disease at the age of 8 which can be compared to a semi-coma. A doctor (Williams) finds a cure for him, but he's already in his 40's then, so he's basicly an 8-year old in the body of an adult (though again a bit different from a mentally challenged person). The movie shows the disadvantages of such an awakening very well and has an interesting theme. Touching movie, though not that great. Worth watching though.

I'm not a big fan of Goodbye Lenin either, by the way. Good concept, and a nice movie, but basicly nothing more than 'nice', if you ask me. I think it's very much a movie that is liked for it's charms and air, and I just didn't really relate to that particular mood (or at least, not at the moment while I was watching the movie). Das Leben der Anderen is a lot better if you ask me, definitely worth the Oscar.

Shilpa · Post by **Shilpa** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 3:46 am

A small up-date: the doctors have made an oficial statment, that since 1990 that man was not in a coma, but his brain did not work the way it was uspposed to work. For the last 17 years, he could hear and understand, swallow and communicate in someways.

The miracle is all about a therapy, that made him able to speak and move (more or less). It's still icredibile, although the story is not about a miraculus "wake up" but rather a miraculus coming back to normal life, wher he can walk the streets and fully uderstand what is going around him.

QuenGalad · Post by **QuenGalad** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 5:35 am

Hi, nice to meet you

Well, I have been quite behind the news last three days or so... Damn translation... But I think that explains why was he able to stand up on his own that fast. It was quite shocking for me.

Shilpa · Post by **Shilpa** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 8:02 am

Well, I'm from Poland so I got to know those news before they got international

QuenGalad · Post by **QuenGalad** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 1:15 am

No co ty nie powiesz?

You're not the only one from Poland here, you know

Still, I guess this only shows how isolated I lately am...

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 4:56 am

It's lucky that he wasn't out for as long as Rip Van Winkle, if he had he'd probably be confused as to which country he's living in given how much the Polish borders have changed over the lst hundred years (let alone the last 500!). Heck there's probably some people that were born in Russia, went to school in Germany and are now living in Poland, never having left their home village their entire lives.

Demortis · Post by **Demortis** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 1:35 pm

Shilpa wrote:A small up-date: the doctors have made an oficial statment, that since 1990 that man was not in a coma, but his brain did not work the way it was uspposed to work. For the last 17 years, he could hear and understand, swallow and communicate in someways.

Well, that answers my question about muscular attrafy(sp?). Well, atleast hes able to have his life back.