'Coma' patient conscious for 23 years

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A Belgian man, thought to have been in a coma for 23 years, was fully conscious but unable to respond because he was paralysed, his mother has discovered.

Rom Houben had a car crash in 1983 and doctors thought he had sunk into an apparent coma.

But his family continued to believe their son was conscious and had sought further medical advice.

Dr Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse said Houben's mother finally met Belgian expert Steven Laureys, who realised that the medical diagnosis for her son was wrong.

Laureys then taught Houben how to communicate through a special keyboard.

The former engineering student and martial arts enthusiast, now 46, told Der Spiegel magazine that he meditated to pass the long years trapped in his own body.

- AP