List of people who awoke from a coma

This is a list of people who awoke from a coma or persistent vegetative state after a lengthy period of time.

Munira Abdullah (born 1959), an Emirati woman, who in 2018 woke up after being in a coma for 27 years that was caused by a car accident.^[1]

Gary Dockery (1954–1997), an American police officer who spent over seven and a half years in a coma after being shot in the forehead. However unlike most of patients who come out of a coma after years, after two days of talking, he became unresponsive again.

Jan Grzebski (1942–2008), a Polish railroad worker who fell into a coma in 1988 and woke up in 2007

Leonard Lowe (1920s-?) was an American boy who, in 1939, fell into a catatonic stupor resulting from encephalitis lethargica. In 1969, Dr. Oliver Sacks managed to awaken him and a few other Spanish flu related catatonic patients using a medication called levodopa or L-dopa. However, after a brief period of being in a fully recovered like state, Lowe and all of the other patients fell back into their catatonic stupors with occasional very short periods of reawakenings. Lowe's and the other patients' stories were the focus for the 1973 book Awakenings and the 1990 movie adaptation Awakenings.

Abdelhak Nouri (born 1997). The then 20-year-old Dutch footballer collapsed during a match. Over a year later, he emerged from the coma.

Martin Pistorius (born 1975). Because of a mystery illness, the South African spent three years in a vegetative state, four years in a minimally conscious state, and five years unable to move anything other than his eyes (locked-in syndrome). In 1999, he fully awakened, and has since recovered to the point that he was able to become a web designer, developer, and author. In 2011, he wrote a book called Ghost Boy, in which he describes his many years of being comatose.

Annie Shapiro (1913-2003), was a Canadian apron shop owner who was in a coma for 29 years because of a massive stroke and in 1992 she suddenly awakened. Apart from the patients in the true story Awakenings, Shapiro was the longest a person has been in a coma like state and woken up. Her story inspired the 1998 movie .^[2]

Terry Wallis (born 1964). This American man was in a coma for nearly a year after a truck accident, then a minimally conscious state for 19 years.

Louis Viljoen (born 1969/1970). South African switchboard operator who in 1994 fell into a persistent vegetative state after being hit by a truck while riding his bike. In 1999, Dr. Wally Nel gave him zolpidem (also known as Ambien) after a nurse told Viljoen's mother that involuntary spasms in his left arm had caused him to tear his mattress and that this could have been because of him feeling uncomfortable deep inside. Within 25 minutes he was talking and by November 2006, he has recovered to the point where it is no longer necessary to give him zolpidem. His story was in the same documentary as Dianne Katz's, who was later also awakened because of Dr. Nel proscribing zolpidem. As a result of his awakening, zolpidem has been since been used to awaken other patients in permanent comas, and several have been awakened around the world since.^[3]

References[]