Wrongly diagnosed as being in a coma and vegetative state for 23 years, a man who was actually conscious but trapped in his own paralyzed body was incredibly given a “second birth” as he describes it.

Rom Houben was studying to be an engineer in Belgium at the age of 23 when he was involved in a car accident. At the time, 23 years ago, his doctors used an accepted standard for medical evaluation to asses eye, verbal, and motor responses known as the Glasgow Coma Scale. The repeated conclusion was that his consciousness was “extinct.”

Houben has since related, “I screamed but there was nothing to hear.” Describing the horrifying time spent alone while others thought him to be dead he says:

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

I shall never forget the day when they discovered what was truly wrong with me — it was my second birth.

I want to read, talk with my friends via the computer, and enjoy life now people know I am not dead.

Three years ago, a neurological specialist, Dr. Steven Laureys who is head of the Coma Science Group, took another look at Houben’s case. “Medical advances caught up with him,” said Dr. Laureys. Using state of the art imaging, Dr. Laureys discovered that although Houben lost control of his body, he was very well aware of what was going on in his surroundings, with brain function almost completely normal.

“Anyone who bears the stamp of ‘unconscious’ just one time hardly ever gets rid of it again,” commented Dr. Laureys. And that’s what has him worried. The Houben case will be held up by Laureys as an example for similarly-diagnosed cases around the world:

In Germany alone each year some 100,000 people suffer from severe traumatic brain injury.

About 20,000 are followed by a coma of three weeks or longer. Some of them die, others regain health.

But an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 people a year, remain trapped in an intermediate stage: they go on living without ever coming back again.

The pro-assisted suicide/euthanasia crowd might take this exciting news as somewhat of a setback. The diagnoses of doctors in such difficult cases no longer holds the weight they used to. The line between vegetative coma and non-responsive paralyzed patients is apparently less demarcated than what has been relied upon in very recent standard medical deductions.

Fortunately, there was no rush to serious action in the Rom Houben case. However with a repeated diagnosis of a vegetative state, Houben could easily have become a victim of euthanasia with life supports removed, as the courts ordered for the clearly responsive Terri Schiavo.

For now, Rom Houben will continue to live his life out at a hospital. But with his computer that he uses to tap out messages in order to communicate, and a special device that lets him read books while lying down, Houben is joyfully alive.

Photo: AP Images

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orest said:

... This is a terrible thing for this man and his family to go through, but how much of the "evidence" that he was aware is coming from this man typing on the keyboard? The reason I ask is because he is now communicating using a method called "Facilitated Communication" which has been shown repeatedly to be worthless. Facilitated Communication involves a facilitator "guiding" the patients hand but the words typed do not come from the patient, but from the facilitator, either consciously or unconsciously; much like how an Ouija board is unconsciously pushed by the people using it. Watching videos on other news sites, I was surprised to see how fast the man was supposedly typing even though he could barely move. Clearly the facilitator was doing the typing. I highly doubt any of what he has typed were his own words. I'm sure that there are many people who are misdiagnosed to be in a vegetative state when they are not, but using a method that has long been shown to be ineffective to communicate is appalling. If the brain scans show he was misdiagnosed, then that is good evidence. But any conclusions from his typing are questionable.

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November 24, 2009
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Jennifer said:

Get the whole story first You have NO way of knowing if what he is doing is "facilitated speech." I know exactly the process you are speaking of. I am s speech language pathologist that works in a rehabilitation center for traumatic brain injury. He may very well be using the device independently. Yes, I saw his picture above. I have seen many patients who are very disabled in many ways, coginitively and physically, that are able to communicate via a speech device. We do not guide their hands or help them finish a sentence as was seen with the facilitated speech. They point to the letters or buttons on a device on their own. So, don't judge this man's responses until you know the whole story.

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November 24, 2009
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Wanda said:

	Paralyzed Nation Global warming, mass illegal immigration, financial dysfunction, peak oil, unsustainable population growth ... the list goes on and on. We as a nation remain paralyzed while our "doctors", i.e. government representatives, act like we are in a coma and can't see what their ineptitude.
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November 24, 2009
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Wanda said:

	Monty Python Maybe their famous bird skit quip - "The bird's not dead, it's just resting" was right on.
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November 24, 2009
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Lee Gonzales said:

The "get your story right" trio forget the main story--- The man woke up. Or did the facilatator do that for him? Some of the posters sound like they are disappointed that he woke up! Teri Schivavo. She was a human being that was put to a slow death by starvation. Are you bragging that you were one of the "pull the plug" shouters? You know how much that diminishes your love and charity toward your fellow man; how much it shows that your are unhappy and resentful toward a man like Mr Houben? The story was not a medical paper but a story about a man that woke up from a coma after 23 years. Isn't it enought to rejoice that the man woke up and not nitpick about how he is communicating? Jennifer you are a speech pathologist but you aren't communicating anything positive to me.

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November 24, 2009
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