Man in coma heard everything for 23 years

Wow... just wow. How could anyone be sane after that amount of time? Talk about scary.

I wonder who is going to receive the profits from the book this coma patient will be writing?

I read about this elsewhere-- This story is amazing! I'm so glad they figured out he was alive. I can't imagine what that would be like, to have everyone around you thinking you were a goner, and you can't do anything about their decisions. Think about all those cases where people have pulled the plug... It's scary to think that some of them might have still been conscious, and their families will never know now.

I'm not sure I believe in such a condition as a vegetative state now.

This sort of thing happens too often, I've read of many cases.

Makes me wonder what that US woman felt, hearing people talking about killing her off. Maybe she eventually felt it would be for the best, she couldn't communicate or do anything except think. But maybe she was still screaming in her head when she finally expired. The whole situation makes me feel really scared of something like that happening to me or a loved one. But if you have to fight for proper medical assessment, how can these things be avoided?

flatearther, never mind the book profits, what about the compensation? He's been neglected for 23 years by so-called medical professionals, who ignored improvements in technology and diagnosis methods that might have spared him many years of suffering in silence. How much are they going to pay?

Think about all those cases where people have pulled the plug...

...which is precisely what I'd want my family to do, as opposed to letting me "live" half my life the way this poor man did.

USAFdude-- Which is fine for you, but some people, even if they did want to die, don't you think they would want to say goodbye to their families one more time before doing so? Their families think they're completely gone and they can't do anything about it, how awful would that feel?

I have to agree with USAFdude, I would rather they pull the plug if this happens to me. Incidents like this make me happy I wrote up my will when I did.

"Rom used the device to tell a reporter for the German magazine Der Spiegel that: “I screamed but there was nothing to hear.”

This was actually a horror story written, oddly enough, about 23 years ago by Harlan Ellison. Anyone remember "I have no mouth and I must scream"? You can imagine that this man would have a lot of difficulty separating dream from reality. The lack of sensory input would have been literally mind-numbing. I hope someone left a TV on somewhere or at least had interesting conversations.

kokorocloud - I'm not implying that my decision is right for anyone other than myself. I'm saying the choice is the patient's, and only the patient's.

heard everything for 23 years

Hahaha and not everything you hear is good stuff!!!

USAFdude-- And I would agree with you. Sorry if I came off as argumentative! I just find the situation too sad if you're awake and fully aware and no one knows it and you can't tell them so. Some people might not have wanted to go without at least assuring their loved ones that they understood. It also reminds me of that situation with that woman who was murdered by her husband and he wanted to pull the plug and insisted that that's what she would have wanted-- if she had really been aware and conscious, she could have told them what had happened or something. It's just unsettling to imagine that this sort of thing could happen more than we know.

... attempted murder, I should have said in that last post, haha. Obviously she was still "alive" at the time.

That is truly spooky! I wonder how many others like that are out there.

@kokorocloud: If you're refering to Terri Schiavo, her husband didn't murder her. Her brain was severely damaged.

Wow... This would be an outright nightmare. Thank god for the parents' insistence that he was okay, otherwise the poor guy could have remained that way for good. It's amazing that the guy's still sane.... but then again, he couldn't do anything if he went insane, either, so he probably used all his effort to keep with it.

I'm not sure I believe in such a condition as a vegetative state now." Oh, believe me, most doc's don't either but there are legalities specifying such. Seen quite a few coma patients and those that went into veg state, especially soldiers crashing their bikes. On some shifts, there were stories of them getting up and even walking around but of course the VA was too cheap to put cameras in there. Also, each state has its own law on specifying whether a patient is a vegetable or in a coma - its not as standard as you may think.

Vegetative or not, I would rather not live under his conditions. I made this clear to my family after reading this...

sharky: It depends where you live. The state may have the right to keep you up or put you down. The mil will put you down except in certain, that I am not certain of, circumstances.