Many people who appear to be in deep coma (a state of unresponsiveness from which an individual has not yet been aroused) are not. Although their eyes are closed, they can hear what is being said. While one person described as being in a coma may be totally unaware of his/her state or environment, another may have some or even full awareness, contrary to our own perception of their condition.

Take the example of 23-year-old Judy, who was in a coma for three months. A professor, making daily rounds with his medical students, would pass by Judy’s bed every day, saying, “Judy is in a coma. She’ll never wake up.”
Judy came out of her coma and said she “always remembered that darn professor refusing to stop by my bed, saying that I would not wake up!”

Or how about Brian, who spent 18 months in a coma caused by a car accident a few weeks after his high school graduation in June 1991. His parents, Don and Fran, took him home from Hospital in January 1992. Brian couldn’t move or talk, his eyes locked in a blank stare. “It was a look that went right through you,” says Fran.
They cared for him, hired a physical therapist to keep his muscles from atrophying, and didn’t stop hoping. A year and a half after the accident, they noticed a change.
“You could see a slow awakening,” says Fran. “It was like he was talking through his eyes. They just came alive.”
He started speaking six months later—his first word was ‘Mom’. “It was pure joy,” his mother says.
Although Brian’s body will never be the same since his accident (he only has partial use of one limb and has memory problems and seizures), he is able to do many things with the help of his parents, his wheelchair, and a specially trained dog named Sara.
The doctors who treated him right after his accident are astonished by his progress: “When I think about Brian, I think about when I first saw him in the intensive care unit and so close to death,” says the neurosurgeon who treated him. “Now, when his parents come in with pictures of him hitting tennis balls in his wheelchair and swimming laps in a pool, it’s hard to imagine.”

Knowing many people have the potential for recovery, if you have a loved one in a coma talk to her/him (about recent and distant events in her/his life; favorite sporting events and holidays; news around the world, a book you recently read; the weather), play her/his favorite music, look for eye-blinks and make simple requests (“Can you move a finger?”).

Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My friend
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