Health2 min(s) read
Man written off as a ‘vegetable’ for 23 years had three words that showed he’d been listening the whole time
A man who spent 23 years in a vegetative state has revealed the three words that proved he’d been conscious the entire time.
Rom Houben, from Belgium, was just 20 when a car crash left him paralyzed and unable to speak. Doctors diagnosed him as being in a “permanent neuro‑vegetative” state.
The three words Houben said after being written off as a 'vegetable'
Speaking to The Guardian, Houben's mother, Fina Nicolaes, a retired nurse, refused to accept it. “My daughter and I were always convinced that he understands,” she claimed. “It was something inside us. We always believed it.”
For more than two decades, Houben lived in a special care center, unable to be cared for by his family, having even explored treatment options in the United States.
However, 23 years after the crash, sophisticated brain scans revealed something miraculous, that Houben actually appeared to understand what was happening around him all along.
His first initial breakthrough came when he was finally able to communicate three simple words through a computer. The computer screen displayed: “I am Rom.”
The breakthrough came years later, after Houben's sister, Tereïn, watched a French television programme about potential medical progress involving someone with a similar condition.
How experts got Houben to communicate
Following an ingenious idea involving a computer mouse, the test still required Houben to somehow move.
His mother said: "The doctor saw that he was moving his right foot. We put the mouse under the foot and were shouting, 'Push, Rom, push, Rom, push.' And he pushed."
The computer produced the words: "I am Rom,” — his first piece of communication in over 20 years.
The family subsequently attended a conference about locked-in syndrome, a condition in which a person can remain mentally alert while being almost completely unable to move or communicate.
Houben was eventually assessed by neurologist Dr Steven Laureys at Liège University, who used advanced brain-imaging technology, and concluded that Houben's brain activity indicated a much greater level of awareness than doctors had previously thought possible.
After 23 years of being considered neuro-vegetative, he was diagnosed with locked-in syndrome instead.
Houben was then given a specialized computer system which allowed him to communicate with assistance from speech and physical therapists.
Looking back on the moment his consciousness was finally recognised, he told doctors: "I was only my consciousness and nothing else. I'll never forget the day they discovered me. It was my second birth."