www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/6632518/Conscious-man-in-coma-for-23-years.html
'The former martial arts enthusiast and engineering student was paralysed after a car crash in 1983. He was finally correctly diagnosed three years ago and his case has just come to light in a scientific paper released by the man who "saved" him.
Doctors treating him regularly examined him using the worldwide Glasgow Coma Scale which judges a patient according to eye, verbal and motor responses.
During every examination he was graded incorrectly. And so he suffered in silence, unable to communicate to his parents, his carers or the friends who came to his bedside that he was awake and aware at all times what was happening in his room.
Only the re-evaluation of his case at the University of Liege brought to light that Houben was only paralysed all these years. Hi-tech scans showed his brain was still functioning almost completely normally.
Therapy has now enabled him to tap out messages on a computer screen and he has a special device above his bed enabling him to read books while lying down.
When he woke up after the accident he had lost control of his body, "I screamed, but there was nothing to hear," he says.
"I became a witness to my own suffering as doctors and nurses tried to speak with me until they gave up all hope."
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