Enslaved by the Mind

Rom Houben was involved in a tragic car accident in 1983. He was 20. Doctors said he fell into a coma and then entered a vegetative state. For 23 years Rom laid on his hospital bed while his family contemplated "pulling the plug." For 23 years Rom was enslaved inside his own mind.

Though doctors believed he was in a vegetative state, Rom's family knew there was more. They sensed that he was alive; they felt his emotions. Though the accident left Rom unable to speak and move, his brain was still and he still was able to hear doctors, nurses, and family members. He was able to listen as doctors urged his family to end his misery. He was able to mourn as his mother confessed the loss of his father. But Rom Houben could not act. He could not visibly show he understood.

Finally, in 2006, 23 years after his diagnosis, doctors reexamined Rom's brain with the latest technology to find that he actually was conscious. Re-diagnosed with the "locked-in syndrome" it was determined that although Rom could not speak or move, he could think and reason. Newly developed technology allowed Rom to express some of his emotions and in his first sentence in 23 years Rom said that he felt as if he had been reborn.

Other than extremely creeping me out, this story made me wonder what it would be like to watch the world go by without participating in it. To be able to sit and watch other age, watch nations battle, cities crumble, generations age. What would it be like to age inside the mind? What would you talk to yourself about for 23 years? Even scarier...

Doctors now believe that over 40% of those diagnosed as vegetative may in fact be like Rom....