After 23 Years in Coma

A man presumed to have been in a deep coma for 23 years has spoken of his "second birth" after doctors realised that he had been fully conscious all along but unable to communicate.

Rom Houben, 46, was paralysed in a car accident that left him in what doctors thought was a persistent vegetative state. In fact he remained aware of his surroundings and could hear medical staff gradually give up hope on him.

Researchers using new scanning techniques discovered that his brain was still active and trained him to use his right forefinger to express himself on a specially adapted keyboard.

His case is being highlighted in his native Belgium by doctors who are pioneering new ways of understanding coma victims, hundreds of whom around the world could be conscious but locked in paralysis – and, unlike a true coma patient, able to feel pain.

"All that time I just literally dreamt of a better life. Frustration is too small a word to describe what I felt."

Mr Houben, an engineering student and martial arts expert, had been written off as in an "extinct" state after he was seriously injured in a car crash in 1983.

He "woke up" three years ago thanks to coma specialists at the University of Liege who have spoken about the case for the first time to try to draw attention to the condition and save other misdiagnosed patients.

Mr Houben recalled the terrifying realisation after he came round from his accident when he knew that he had lost complete control of his body – but no one knew that he was fully conscious.

"I screamed, but there was nothing to hear," he told the German magazine Der Speigel.