Man in Coma for 23 Years Heard Every Word Said Around Him

by Heidi Stevenson

24 November 2009

Ron Houben was trapped in a coma for 23 years, aware of everything that happened around him. He now communicates through a special keyboard.

He had been diagnosed as being in a vegetative state for 23 years, but Ron Houben was aware of everything said around him, though he couldn't do anything to let people know. His condition was discovered by a brain scan that hadn't been available at the time of the car crash that put him in the coma.

Now 46 years old, Rom Houben communicates through a touchscreen computer mounted on his wheelchair. He described how he felt as, "Powerlessness. Utter powerlessness. At first I was angry, then I learned to live with it." He refers to his recovery as a renaissance.

His family refused to give up hope for all those years. His mother, Fina, believed that he was aware. During an interview with the Associated Press, she said, "At that moment, you think, 'Oh, my God. See, now you know.' I was always convinced."

Belgium's Coma Science Group (CSG) has studied such cases and says that such misdiagnoses are far more common than realized. Steven Laureys of CSG says, "Despite the importance of diagnostic accuracy, the rate of misdiagnosis of vegetative state has not substantially changed in the past 15 years." He believes that up to 43% of consciousness disorders are incorrectly diagnosed as vegetative.

It's now been 26 years since Houben was retrieved from his coma. While there is little expectation of further improvement in his condition, his mother says, "We continue to search and search. For 26 years already."

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