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Twenty three years ago, a car crash left Rom Houben totally paralyzed. Doctors gave him a battery of tests and concluded that he was in a vegetative state or a coma. Except that they were wrong: he was conscious the whole time but unable to tell anyone about it.
‘I screamed, but there was nothing to hear,’ said Mr Houben, now 46.
Doctors used a range of coma tests, recognised worldwide, before reluctantly concluding that his consciousness was ‘extinct’.
But three years ago, new hi-tech scans showed his brain was still functioning almost completely normally.
Mr Houben describes the moment as ‘my second birth’.
I’ve always liked ABBA, and now I like ‘em even more because apparently their music can miraculously awaken someone from a coma!
Here’s the story of how 3-year-old Layla Towsey woke up from a meningitis coma, singing Mamma Mia:
Ms Towsey [...] , said: "Before they put her in the ambulance we were told to give her a kiss goodbye – it was an awful moment."
Layla was also diagnosed with meningococcal septicaemia and the family prepared themselves for the worst as she lay in intensive care.
Ms Towsey said: "But on the Sunday morning I could hear her singing Mamma Mia quietly. I couldn’t believe it.
"I knew immediately she was going to be OK."
36 hours after drowning, wolf spiders were able to revive themselves and suffered no ill effects, scientists discovered recently.
A study at the University of Rennes in France found that wolf spiders died after 24 to 36 hours of being immersed in water. But when the scientists came back to weigh the dead spiders, they found them alive again. Apparently wolf spiders can put themselves into comas and shut down the metabolic processes that do not require air. Arachnologist Julien Pétillon says,
“There could be many other species that could this this that we do not know of yet.”
(image credit: Sonia Dourlot )
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One Saturday in May, Ryan Finley tried to wake up his wife Jill but she wouldn’t wake up. The 31-year-old woman had gone into cardiac arrest in her sleep and fell into a coma. After she was rushed to the hospital, doctors said she had very little chance of recovery because Jill’s brain showed little activity.
Ryan was suddenly faced with a tough decision — whether to take Jill off life support. He prepared to say goodbye to his young wife, but he wasn’t prepared for what happened after the plug was pulled.
Source: ABC News
Video: LiveLeak
