Mental Prison No More

Rom Houben had a rather rough 23 years. For more than two decades medical experts determined that the Belgian man was in a coma. Except he wasn't. And nobody knew that better than Rom Houben himself, who could hear and understand everything around him perfectly clearly, although he lost the ability to communicate.

But three years ago, after an unimaginably long and hellish experience, a team of neurological researchers determined that Houben's cerebral cortex was still active, which meant his mind was most definitely still "on." Eventually, scientists created a computer with a specially-built keyboard for him to express himself and Houben was released from his mental prison.

"I shall never forget the day when they discovered what was truly wrong with me — it was my second birth," Houben, now 46, told the German magazine Der Spiegel, as reported by The New York Times.

Houben's nightmare started when a car accident left the then engineering student as a quadriplegic. They also assumed he was in a persistent vegetative state because he did not respond to their questions or stimuli. But it turns out Houben knew exactly what they were saying and silently watched in agony as doctors and nurses slowly gave up all hope of his consciousness.

But everything changed when Dr. Steven Laureys and his team came along. Laureys used sophisticated brain scanning to make his critical breakthrough — which shattered Houben's longstanding wall of silence.

"It was one of those rare moments where you really see that what you are doing is useful," Laureys explained. "It was a very big moment not just for me but for the whole team, one of those few much-needed moments (for medical professionals.)"

Today, a man is silent no more and a team of researchers doing important medical work can celebrate the fruits of their labor. We can only imagine Rom Houben shouting "hooray."

Photo courtesy of maxbrown via stock.xchang.