It turned out that men who were thought to be in plant condition for 23 years actually had consciousness all the time

Since being in a car accident in November 1983 until 2006comaIt was revealed that Belgian men who were believed to be in a state had consciousness for the past 23 years in fact.

Rom Houben who was 20 years old at the time of the accident is now 46 years old, the body isParalysis (paralysis)Although it is in a state, physiotherapy restores a bit of exercise and talks about patience for 23 years with a special computer for communication.

Details are as below.Belgian Man Trapped In Coma For 23 Years Was Conscious Throughout

I always knew he could understand, says mother of man locked in 'coma' | Science | The Guardian

Mother of Rom Houben who was in a 'coma' for 23 years knew he understood every word she said | Mail Online

At the time of the accident in 1983 the doctors of Belgium Zolder were internationally recognizedGlasgow Coma Scale(Glasgow · Coma · Scale: Evaluation classification scale of consciousness disturbance by three categories of Eye Opening · Language · Exercise), I diagnosed Mr. Houben again and again. But Mr. Houben every timePlant stateIt seems that it was incorrectly classified as being.

Mr. Houben (then 20 years old) before the accident. It was a student of a faculty of engineering that is fluent in four languages.


"I felt very angry at the beginning at first when I realized that people in the surrounding area were thought to be unconscious, but I had to learn to endure," 46-year-old Houben said It is. When he recovered his consciousness after the accident, Mr. Houben noticed that he was paralyzed and he could hear everything the doctor is saying, but he could not communicate.

"No voice came out even though we shouted or screamed," Mr. Houben talks on the touch screen of a dedicated computer mounted on a wheelchair, "I had no choice but to dream." You can also read books while lying down with this computer.


Paralysis was the result of the heart stopping for several minutes after the accident and the supply of oxygen to the brain was cut off. "The thing I felt can not be said entirely with the word frustration," Houben says. He seems to have survived by spending his days dreaming of a different life and meditating. When the doctors realized that the plant condition is a misdiagnosis, it is said that it felt like being born again.

Father Mr. Fina Houben (73 years old), a mother who just could not believe her son is completely unconscious, contacted a state-of-the-art brain expert three years ago and asked for a reinspection.LiègeDr. Steven Laureys of the university scanned Mr. Houben's brain, the brain is almost normal and the body can not move, but Mr. Houben fully grasps what is happening around himself It became clear that there was.

Fina says his son is not pessimistic. "He is an optimist, trying to get what I can get from my life."


BMC NeurologyDr. Laureys who mentioned Mr. Houben's case in a paper published in the magazine said that "medical progress has caught Mr. Houben's case," as Mr. Houben was mistakenly diagnosed as a plant condition, somehow made a decision It suggests that patients who are anxious to transmit may be in hospital beds all over the world.

Dr. Laureys et al. 'S research has revealed that the percentage of misdiagnosis among cases classified as plant condition has not decreased much since 15 years ago.

In the study the state of consciousnessVegetative State (VS)OrMinimally Conscious State (MCS)Diagnosis based on the unified view of the medical team based on the observation and the classification scale for evaluating the state of consciousness neurobehaviorallyJFK Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R)We compared the diagnosis by. As a result, among the 44 patients diagnosed with the consensus of the medical team, 18 (41%) were classified as MCS lighter than VC, and 4 (10%) were more than MCS It became clear that it is mild.