• Ever thought it'd be cool to have your art, writing, or challenge runs featured on PokéCommunity? Click here for info - we'd love to spotlight your work!
  • Our weekly protagonist poll is now up! Vote for your favorite Trading Card Game 2 protagonist in the poll by clicking here.
  • Welcome to PokéCommunity! Register now and join one of the best fan communities on the 'net to talk Pokémon and more! We are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.
    Register

Man trapped in coma for 23 years - was conscious the whole time

Jolene

Jolene

Your huckleberry friend
  • Poké Ball Great Ball Ultra Ball Premier Ball
    • 1,289
    Posts
    15
    Years
    • Age 29
    • Seen Apr 18, 2025
    I just read a really scary news report about a man who was in a coma for 23 years, but he was conscious the entire time.


    Full article: https://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/23/man-trapped-coma-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.


    What do you think about this? I think it's probably the worst thing that could ever happen to a person.
     
    That would be so horrible. Worst thing that can happen to someone while alive, if you ask me.
     
    It's definitely a scary thing to think about. I can't even imagine how I would cope with being stuck inside my own body and not being able to communicate or even move.
     
    Thats the scariest thought ever. Being trapped inside your body for 23 years. No way of communicating, no movement. A vegtable, trapped in its own body, just waiting to die - and that didn't even happen.

    I think the worst is having someone tell you someone important to you has died, and you cant even cry about it.

    There are fates worse than death. This is one of them.
     
    It's sad that someone such as he received such a gruesome fate for 23 years. I cannot imagine the emotions he have been literally storing within his mind and body for so long.
     
    So how did they discover he was conscious after all this time? :\
     
    That's pretty scary. If I was in his shoes and I finally could awaken from the coma, I don't think I could live in this world.
     
    Scarf said:
    This article says they did a scan of his brain and saw something that told them he was still in there.

    What scares me most is the thought that there are probably a lot of other people like him out there and no one knows it.
    Click to expand...
    I see. True, I can't imagine their states of mind just lying there all the time when awake. x_X
     
    I read it and I had to think that that man must be very spiritually and emotionally aware, with no one but himself to talk with and contemplate with for twenty-three years. Still, nobody should have to bear that kind of loneliness. : (

    Hopefully, the striking revelation that he has had to suffer this awful situation for over two decades and that there are more suffering like him out there will prompt us to search for a way to fix this.
     
    Oh... Poor guy...
    That's a really scary situation. I didn't read the article, but without reading even, there are a lot of questions in my mind.
    It's really been a painful experience, and the loneliness and sadness of not being able to express your feelings must be overwhelmingly bad...
     
    I also read it from Yahoo Insider .

    And I had a nightmare that night that I was seeing my mum fall down from a cliff but I could not do anything .

    I felt horrible then woke up...
     
    Never could I live like that. Just a mind, able to process info but never do anything. It is a horrible thing. That is why, if I was put into a vegatative state or anything like that, I'd ask to be pulled. In advanced of course.
     
    I read about this on another forum. Talk about a fate worse than death.
    I can't even imagine something so horrible. I haven't even been alive 23 years yet, if I went through that for my entire life it still wouldn't be the same as the horror he went through.
     
    And just think. After you get over the initial shock and terror of being unable to move, there's the horrible boredom he must have felt. I'd rather die than live like that. Poor dude.
     
    It's very difficult to pass one hour doing nothing. 23 years? Heck, this is a fate worse than death.
     
    I wonder what he would have done had he suddenly regained control of his body instead of have someone discover his state. Talk to his family? Maybe. I'd probably want a nice meal first, personally. Twenty-three years of whatever they were feeding him must have been nightmarish.
     
    I heard about that too. :/
    Just like others said, it is far worse than death.
     
    Shudder-worthy. I don't know what I'd do if that happened. I wonder if he could sleep on purpose... One respite would be better than none...
     
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    Back
    Top