Man's Medical History Reads Like a Horror Novel

"I screamed, but there was nothing to hear." NPR reports on the disturbing story of a man whom doctors thought was in a coma for 23 years. In reality, he was totally conscious, but couldn't communicate. Improved brain imaging technology--which made his real state apparent--was "like a second birth."

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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trippcook

Whether it’s an innocent Ouija board effect or a straight-up scam, who can say, but this is DEFINITELY facilitated communication These people are widely used with non-communicative autistic people, and studies have shown that when you whisper a question, show him a picture, or otherwise communicate to him in a way that the facilitator DOES NOT SEE OR HEAR, the communication magicly stops. Until he can communicate without someone watching the screen and punching buttons for him, I won’t believe it.
Brainspore

This story gets weirder and weirder. To summarize:

1. Yes, this guy really does appear to be conscious and able to perceive the world around him.
2. The people who claim to be helping him “communicate” are almost certainly frauds or self-deluded.

Wired just wrote a follow-up on the story.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/houben-communication/
Irene Delse

Oh, hum. This sounds fishy. The medical staff is using a dubious kind of “facilitated communication” by which someone is actually moving the hand of the coma guy around on a pad. P.Z. Myers, among other skeptics, linked to a vid showing no discernible involvement in this “communication” on the part of the man supposedly conscious. See his blog post:

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/11/really_this_guy_is_conscious.php

He also had this to say in a commentary:

“The scanning technique used to identify ‘consciousness’ has been criticized. The investigator, Laureys, seems to have a history of endorsing poorly supported hypotheses that patients in a persistent vegetative state are capable of slow recovery.”

Alas, the article in Nature criticizing this is behind a paywall:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7108/full/443132b.html
NicoNicoNico

@ #8,

Metallica actually based that on the book “Johnny Got His Gun”. Fairly good read.
Daemon

I’m almost surprised he hasn’t become a raving lunatic.
Irene Delse

Oh, and here’s James Randi’s analysis of the case, and it’s pretty damning:

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/783-this-cruel-farce-has-to-stop.html

Bottom line: the Facilitated Communication used here was already discredited years ago, and several medical associations specialized in the treatment of brain illnesses and injuries say it does nothing except give false hope to families.
querent

good lord. my sympathies are with you.
Anonymous

“Awakenings” by Oliver Sacks.
nanuq

How did this not turn up when he had an EEG? That alone should have told his doctors that he wasn’t in a vegetative state.
Anonymous

As much as I dislike Harlan Ellison the person, that story is amazing. “I have no mouth and I must scream”
daeward

This sounds like locked-in syndrome (which–don’t kill me–was featured on a episode of House last season)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locked-in_syndrome

Scary shit.
Anonymous

this is like that metallica song “one”. that song always terrified me with it’s descriptions of being trapped inside your head without being able to communicate. It was my worst nightmare for years.
octopod

oddly enough, randi.org is down.
Anonymous

It sounds more like a horror short story. “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”
- MrsBug
  
  OMG, I remember that story. Horrifying!!
MadMolecule

Nightmare city. Eesh.
Anonymous

Having watched the AP video of the story, it is blatantly obvious that the “facilitator” is typing out what’s in her own mind, and Mr. Houben himself is not communicating on that touch screen. She is grabbing his index finger and typing words on the touch screen at a fairly rapid rate like that of a fully able person like herself, despite the fact that he can barely see the screen and can barely move his hand.

That faked part of the story was unnecessary. The main point is that he came out of his 23-year coma and is clearly conscious now, despite the diagnosis that that was not going to happen. He’s conscious but he sure ain’t typing messages as claimed.