A patient who lay in a coma for 23 years after he was critically injured in a car crash has told of how he could hear and see – but could not communicate to others that he was actually conscious.

The Daily Mail reports that former martial arts enthusiast Rom Houben from Belgium was 23 when he was paralysed in the car crash.

Doctors were convinced that Mr Houben was in persistent vegetative state and repeatedly tried the gold standard test – known as the Glasgow Coma Scale – for testing eye, verbal and motor responses in such patients. However, on each occasion, Mr Houben was graded incorrectly and his brain activity was classed as ‘extinct’.

It was only when experts at the University of Liege reassessed his case that it was discovered that, although Mr Houben was physically paralysed, his brain was still functioning fully and he could see and hear – but could not communicate this.

The neurological specialist who ‘saved’ Mr Houben – Dr Steven Laureys from the Coma Science Group and Department of Neurology at Liege University Hospital – has told the story in a scientific paper.

Mr Houben said that the moment that new high-tech scans revealed his brain was functioning normally was like a second birth for him. He has since learned to communicate by tapping out messages on a computer screen.

'All that time I just literally dreamed of a better life, 'said Mr Houben.

’Frustration is too small a word to describe what I felt. I shall never forget the day when they discovered what was truly wrong with me – it was my second birth. I want to read, talk with my friends via the computer and enjoy my life now that people know I am not dead.’

Dr Laureys intends to use the case to highlight instances of severe traumatic brain injury around the world – he said that in Germany there are around 100,000 new cases each year and 20,000 of these patients spend three weeks or more in a coma before either recovering or going on to die. Between 3,000 and 5,000, however, become ‘trapped’ in the intermediate stage, said Dr Laureys, and remain in what is termed a persistent vegetative state for many years.

The neurology expert used high resonance scanning technology to diagnose Mr Houben’s condition.

The former ‘false coma’ patient is unlikely ever to leave hospital, but has a computer and a device installed above his bed that enables him to read books lying down.

'Medical advances caught up with him,' said Dr Laureys, who now believes many more cases of ‘false coma’ may exist among patients who are perceived as being in a persistent vegetative state.

'I screamed, but there was nothing to hear,’ said Mr Houben in a typed statement about his time as a coma patient. ‘I dreamed myself away.’

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