Coma that never was raises hard questions

FOR one family, it was news of great joy. For many others, it may increase their anxiety about the condition of those they love who have been declared to be in vegetative states. Twenty-three years ago a Belgian man, Rom Houben, was taken to hospital after a car crash. Mr Houben survived, but was unable to move, speak or express any kind of understanding. He was assumed to be in a "permanent neuro-vegetative" condition, and for two decades that remained the medical assessment. But modern tomography has confirmed what his relatives always believed: that Mr Houben understood everything that happened around him, although his paralysis prevented him from showing it. He was conscious. This discovery has resulted in changes in his care, and with treatment by speech therapists and physiotherapists, and the use of a computer keyboard, Rom Houben is now beginning to communicate again. It is an amazing story of human resilience, but it also raises some disturbing questions.