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11-23-2009, 04:41 PM
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#1 | | I *heart* Revscene.net very Muchie
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| Man in ‘coma’ heard everything for 23 years
Mother says her son received wrong medical diagnosis after 1983 car crash
Link for video: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31388323...11007#34111007
Wow, that's crazy! Quote:
BRUSSELS - For 23 torturous years, Rom Houben says he lay trapped in his paralyzed body, aware of what was going on around him but unable to tell anyone or even cry out.
The car-crash victim had been diagnosed as being in a vegetative state but appears to have been conscious the whole time. An expert using a specialized type of brain scan that was not available in the 1980s finally realized it, and unlocked Houben’s mind again.
The 46-year-old Houben is now communicating with one finger and a special touchscreen on his wheelchair.
“Powerlessness. Utter powerlessness. At first I was angry, then I learned to live with it,” he said, punching the message into the screen during an interview with the Belgian RTBF network, aired Monday. He has called his rescue his “renaissance.”
Over the years, Houben’s family refused to accept the word of his doctors, firmly believing their son knew what was happening around him, and gave no thought to letting him die, said his mother, Fina. She was vindicated when the breakthrough came.
“At that moment, you think, ‘Oh, my God. See, now you know.’ I was always convinced,” she said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
The discovery took place three years ago but only recently came to light, after publication of a study on the misdiagnosis of people with consciousness disorders.
While a 23-year error is highly unusual, the wrong diagnosis of patients with consciousness disorders is far too common, according to the study, led by Steven Laureys of Belgium’s Coma Science Group.
“Despite the importance of diagnostic accuracy, the rate of misdiagnosis of vegetative state has not substantially changed in the past 15 years,” the study said. Back then, studies found that “up to 43 percent of patients with disorders of consciousness are erroneously assigned a diagnosis of vegetative state.”
The issue is fraught with difficult medical and ethical questions. Patients diagnosed as being in a vegetative state with no hope of recovery are sometimes allowed to die, as was done in 2005 with Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged Florida woman at the center of the biggest right-to-die case in U.S. history. Her feeding tube was removed.
“It makes you think. There is still a lot of work to be done” to better diagnose such disorders, said Caroline Schnakers of the Coma Science Group.
Houben was injured in an auto accident in 1983 when he was 20. Doctors said he fell into a coma at first, then went into a vegetative state.
A coma is a state of unconsciousness in which the eyes are closed and the patient cannot be roused. A vegetative state is a condition in which the eyes are open and can move, and the patient has periods of sleep and periods of wakefulness, but remains unconscious and cannot reason or respond.
During Houben’s two lost decades, his eyesight was poor, but the experts say he could hear doctors, nurses and visitors to his bedside, and feel the touch of a relative. He says that during that time, he heard his father had died, but he was unable to show any emotion.
Over the years, Houben’s skeptical mother took him to the United States five times for tests. More searching got her in touch with Laureys, who put Houben through a PET scan.
“We saw his brain was almost normal,” said neuropsychologist Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse, who has worked with Houben for three years.
The family and doctors then began trying to establish communication. A breakthrough came when he was able to indicate yes or no by slightly moving his foot to push a computer device placed there by Laureys’ team. Then came the spelling of words using the touchscreen.
Houben’s condition has since been diagnosed as a form of “locked-in syndrome,” in which people are unable to speak or move but can think and reason.
“You have to imagine yourself lying in bed wanting to speak and move but unable to do so — while in your head you are OK,” Vanhaudenhuyse said. “It was extremely difficult for him and he showed a lot of anger, which is normal since he was very frustrated.”
With so much to say after suffering for so long in silence, Houben has started writing a book.
“He lives from day to day,” his 73-year-old mother said. “He can be funny and happy,” but is also given to black humor.
Recently he went to his father’s grave for the planting of a tree.
“A letter he wrote was lowered into the grave through a tube,” his mother said. “He closed his eyes for half an hour, because he cannot cry.”
There is little hope that Houben’s physical condition will get better, but his mother said she refuses to give up: “We continue to search and search. For 26 years already.”
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11-23-2009, 04:50 PM
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#2 | | I'm better than you.
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lol wow get fucked
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11-23-2009, 05:12 PM
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#3 | | RS.net, where our google ads make absolutely no sense!
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i will never complain of boredom again.........  | |
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11-23-2009, 05:21 PM
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#4 | | I only answer to my username, my real name is Irrelevant!
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my god... wow that's horrible, just imagining it is so messed up...
43% of ppl are misdiagnosed too... damn
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11-23-2009, 06:03 PM
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#5 | | ESKETIT
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23 years fuck that must suck
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11-23-2009, 06:17 PM
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#6 | | My homepage has been set to RS
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23 years...I can't even lay still for 1 hours...must have really sucked!!
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11-23-2009, 07:38 PM
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#7 | | Wunder? Wonder?? Wander???
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poor guy
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11-23-2009, 07:58 PM
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#8 | | RS Operative (G)
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prob wants a bj so bad
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11-23-2009, 08:01 PM
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#9 | | Banned (BBM)
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wtf 23 years
he missed out on a lot of pussies for the last 2 decades
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11-23-2009, 08:03 PM
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#10 | | I only answer to my username, my real name is Irrelevant!
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make sure you leave demands that a escort visits you everyday if you're in a coma and for a tv to be on in you're room airing your fav shows, just in case
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11-23-2009, 08:33 PM
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#11 | | ESKETIT
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^ QFT
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11-23-2009, 08:41 PM
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#12 | | Willing to sell body for a few minutes on RS
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wow, that fucking sucks
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11-23-2009, 08:44 PM
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#13 | | Fathered more RS members than anybody else. Who's your daddy?
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Originally Posted by Vansterdam  23 years fuck that must suck | Yeah........... kind of reminds me of my marriage.
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11-23-2009, 09:23 PM
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#14 | | I Will not Admit my Addiction to RS
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Originally Posted by 89blkcivic Yeah........... kind of reminds me of my marriage. |  epic... but yeah that totally sucks hearing everything and not being able to react physically. Too bad he heard his father passed away at a vegetable state. Probably the worse feeling would to know your father had past away and not able to do aynthing about it.
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11-23-2009, 09:35 PM
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#15 | | Banned By Establishment
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Originally Posted by 89blkcivic Yeah........... kind of reminds me of my marriage. | bahahahah
but yeah, that sucks... fuck, im complaining about the last 45 mins when no one's called me to do anything...
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11-23-2009, 09:59 PM
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#16 | | ninja edits your posts without your knowledge
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Ughhh did no one else think about the House episode?!
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11-24-2009, 01:09 AM
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#17 | | RS.net, where our google ads make absolutely no sense!
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Seriously that feeling must suck..being helpless, unable to move, speak or do anything..It's just like going for surgery and the gas/anesthetics doesn't completely knock you out...I'm sure this feels 100x+ worse then sleep paralysis too  | |
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11-24-2009, 01:11 AM
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#18 | | Rs has made me the woman i am today!
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OMFG.
That is WOW.
Thank goodness the mother didn't let him go.
That must have been one of the most intense things anyone has ever experienced in the world!
That is essentially purgatory?
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11-24-2009, 02:08 AM
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#19 | | Revscene.net has a homepage?!
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Originally Posted by CRS Ughhh did no one else think about the House episode?! | hahah the one with Mos Def?
the first thing i thought of.
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11-24-2009, 07:50 AM
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#20 | | Banned (ABWS)
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wow
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11-24-2009, 08:01 AM
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#21 | | Willing to sell a family member for a few minutes on RS
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damn, that sucks,  at the bj and pussy comments
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11-24-2009, 08:23 AM
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#22 | | RS.net, helping ugly ppl have sex since 2001
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23 years stuck without the ability to express thoughts. omfg.
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11-24-2009, 08:38 AM
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#23 | | I *Fwap* *Fwap* *Fwap* to RS
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I dont know what I would do. You could hear and see everything but cant move thats a scary thought. especially for 23 years
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11-24-2009, 11:02 AM
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#24 | | I contribute to threads in the offtopic forum
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23 years that you can think but can't move? wow i can't even start to imagine
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11-24-2009, 02:20 PM
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#25 | | I contribute to threads in the offtopic forum
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torture at its best
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