There was this piece of news yesterday from AFP that was so incredible that i reproduce it here.

A man who emerged from what doctors thought was a vegetative state says he was fully conscious for 23 years but could not respond because he was paralyzed, his mother said Monday.
Rom Houben, 46, had a car crash in 1983 and doctors thought he had sunk into a coma. His family continued to believe their son was conscious and sought further medical advice.
Professor Steven Laureys of Belgium’s Coma Science Group realized that the diagnosis was wrong and taught Houben how to communicate through a special keyboard, said Dr. Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse, who is on Laureys’ team.
Rom used the device to tell a reporter for the German magazine Der Spiegel that: “I screamed but there was nothing to hear.”
Belgian doctors who treated him early on said that Rom had gone from a coma into a vegetative condition.
Coma is a state of unconsciousness in which the eyes are closed and the patient can’t be roused, as if simply asleep. A vegetative state is a condition in which the eyes are open and can move, and the patient has periods of sleep and periods of wakefulness, but remains unconscious and unaware of him or herself or others. The patient can’t think, reason, respond, do anything on purpose, chew or swallow.
But Rom’s parents would not accept that he was comatose or vegetative.
His mother, Fina Houben, said in a telephone interview that they took him five times to the United States for tests.
More searching finally got her in touch with Laureys, who put Houben through a PET scan that indicated he was conscious. The family and doctors then began trying to establish communication.
A breakthrough came when he was able to indicate yes or no by slightly moving his foot to push a computer device placed there by Laureys’ team.
Then came the spelling of words using his finger and a touch-screen attached to his wheelchair.
“You have to imagine yourself lying in bed wanting to speak and move but unable to do so — while in your head you are OK,” Vanhaudenhuyse said. “It was extremely difficult for him and he showed a lot of anger, which is normal since he was very frustrated,” she said.
The case came to light after Laureys published a study in the journal BMC Neurology this year showing that about four out of ten patients with consciousness disorders are wrongly diagnosed as being a vegetative state. Houben, although not specifically mentioned, was part of the study.
Houben has started writing a book on his experiences.

I came across an interesting website dedicated to ‘Preventing, treating and living with brain injury’. I have to say i am very impressed with the content on there.

I spotted a starting page with a FAQ and i will report on some of the things I’ve read there.

The article responds a wealth of questions and i will just pick on some of the most important to me

1. What is a Traumatic brain injury and what is TBI versus ABI?
Traumatic brain injury or TBI happens when you experience any forceful contact to your head, and it disrupts your brain’s natural functions.Your brain can be injured by other conditions, like infections or strokes, but those kinds of injuries are called “acquired brain injuries,” or ABIs. They can be just as life altering as a TBI.

TBIs can be either mild, moderate, or severe. Most TBIs are mild and a lot of the mild TBIs sufferers find that their symptoms get better over time. In the most serious cases of TBI, the effects of the damage can last a lifetime.

2. How many people have TBI?
The website states that almost 1.6 million Americans sustain a TBI each year.More than 50,000 people die as a result of the TBI every year, and some 125,000 are permanently disabled as a result of the injury.

3. What causes TBI?
The leading causes of TBI are:
Falls (28%); Motor vehicle/traffic crashes (20%); Other events, like industrial accidents or sports-related injuries (19%); Assaults (11%).

4. Who is at highest risk for TBI?
Males are approximately 1.5 times as likely as females to sustain a TBI.The two age groups at highest risk for TBI are 0 to 4 year olds and 15 to 19 year olds.

5. How does a TBI affect the brain and body?
When a TBI occurs, anything having to do with your brain is potentially affected. That means your basic body functions, like eating and sleeping, can be altered. It also means that the complex parts of your life — your emotions, your thoughts, and your ability to communicate — can also be disrupted.