Coming out of a coma: being held hostage by your own body. Longest stay in a coma in the world Longest coma in the world with awakening
A 59-year-old woman who spent almost her entire adult life in an unconscious state. It's about about Edward O’Bara, whom the media at one time nicknamed “Sleeping Snow White.”
At the age of 16, O'Bara fell into a diabetic coma, and since then she has never “woke up” for 42 years. It is noteworthy that Eduarda’s eyes were constantly open, but there was no consciousness: she did not hear others, did not see them and was unable to perceive the world around her in any way.
O'Bar's last words before his coma were a request to his mother. “Promise that you won’t leave me,” the girl said. And her mother remembered her request for the rest of her life.
Kay O'Bara spent the next 35 years at her daughter's bedside, regularly arranging her birthdays, caring for her, and leaving for 90 minutes at a time to sleep or shower.
In 2008, her mother died at the age of 80. And Eduarda’s sister began to fulfill her promise. It was she who witnessed the death of “Sleeping Snow White.” “Eduarda just closed her eyes and went to heaven to be with my mommy,” Colleen O’Bara said.
According to her, Eduarda was not only “the best sister imaginable,” but also taught the woman a lot without even contacting her. "It's really great," she concluded.
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Coma is a dangerous condition that is accompanied by deep sleep and threatens the vulnerable human life. This is a state bordering between life and death. Typically, it is characterized complete absence consciousness, weakening or absence of any reaction to external stimuli. Ahead lies the complete extinction of reflexes, which leads to their complete loss. The respiratory rate is also disrupted, changes in vascular tone and other phenomena that gradually kill. So how long did the longest coma on the planet last?
The longest coma in the world is considered to be a case that occurred in Miami, America a long time ago. The young girl, who was only sixteen years old, fell into a diabetic coma after pneumonia, which lasted 42 years. Her name was Eduarda O'Bara, who was nicknamed "Sleeping Snow White." The young girl spent almost the entire time in a deep coma. The worst thing is that throughout this period her eyes were open as if everything was fine. Moreover, the ability to think was completely lost: she did not hear the conversations that were happening nearby, did not feel the touch of her loved ones, could not see, speak or perceive the world around her.
Before the girl fell into a coma, she told her mother the following: touching words: "Promise that you won't leave me." The mother kept her promise to her own daughter and visited her ward until 2008, when she died. After this, instead of her mother, Eduarda was with her Native sister Colin. And their father left the world back in 1977 after an exhausting schedule of caring for his daughter.
The young girl was predicted to have a very successful future, but everything was ruined by illness, after which she was bedridden for forty-two years.
In the early morning of January 3, 1970, Eduarda woke up abruptly with terrible convulsions, which were accompanied by unbearable pain. And it was all due to the insulin that she took orally, which did not reach the blood in time. After this, she was immediately taken to the hospital, where she asked her mother to make her a promise, which she dutifully fulfilled all these long and tiring years.
All this time, Eduarda Kay O'Bara's mother spent at the bedside of her beloved daughter, protecting and celebrating all her birthdays. She only left her permanent post for a short time to get some sleep and rest. The woman did not lose hope until the last moment, believing that she would be able to talk to her beloved daughter again.
The closest friends and relatives came to the unfortunate Eduarda’s room every day, hoping that she would wake up one day. One sad day, Colleen O'Bara went out for a cup of coffee, and when she returned, she discovered that the woman had died. She did not hide her despair, but at the same time she said that her sister was able to teach her a lot without even saying a word.
A sad, but at the same time incredibly touching story that left no one indifferent. Dr. Wayne Dyer, having heard about this incredible story, wrote the book "A Promise is a Promise." Not every person is able to devote their entire life to caring for a loved one. This is complete dedication without a share of selfishness, real love mother to her child. On this moment this is the longest coma known. Unfortunately, it did not have a happy ending, but only a very sad outcome.
Contrary to what we most often see in feature films, coma does not always mean a complete “shutdown” of all systems human body. In total, there are four degrees of severity of coma - if the first one is more like a half-asleep state, and the patient retains basic reflexes, then at the fourth stage the person ceases to be aware of the outside world and react to it, often even breathing stops.
Cases where people spend several days or weeks in a coma are not uncommon. Sometimes doctors put a person into an artificial coma in order to protect the body from negative impact on the brain - for example, after hemorrhage or swelling. However, a prolonged coma represents a significant big threat. It is believed that what longer person is in this state, the less chance of recovery. A coma that lasts more than a year is sometimes also called " dead zone”, and loved ones are prepared for the fact that a person will spend the rest of his life in this state.
What people say when they leave prolonged coma, and how their lives changed after that - in the material of Izvestia.
Another world
Testimonies from those who have been in a coma vary depending on how long the person spent in this state. For example, people whose coma has lasted several days most often say that upon waking up they feel the same as a person who has slept for about 20 hours. They can feel severe weakness, difficulty moving and the need for prolonged sleep. Some are not even able to remember everything they saw during this time.
People who have spent several weeks, months or years in a coma are usually unable to move independently after waking up and require a long recovery period. They may have difficulty looking at light, and they will likely need to relearn how to speak and write, as well as struggle with memory loss. Such people may not only ask the same question several times in a row, but also not recognize people’s faces or remember entire episodes from their own lives.
Body like a prison
Photo: Getty Images/PhotoAlto/Ale Ventura
Martin Pistorius fell into a coma when he was 12 and remained there for the next 13 years. The cause was a neurological disease, the exact nature of which doctors were unable to determine; meningitis was presumably to blame. The boy, who initially complained of a sore throat, very quickly lost the ability to speak, move and focus his eyes. Doctors discharged him from the hospital, warning his parents that he would remain in this condition for the rest of his life. At the same time, Martin’s eyes were open, but his consciousness and reflexes did not work. The father and mother cared for the child with all their might - every day they took him to classes in a special group, bathed him, and turned him over at night every few hours to avoid the formation of bedsores.
The worst thing for the boy began after about two years later, his consciousness returned, but his speech and movement skills did not return. He could not tell those around him that he heard, saw and understood everything that was happening around him. Those close to him, accustomed to his condition, had almost stopped noticing him by this point, and therefore could not guess what changes were taking place in Martin’s mind.
Martin himself later said that he felt locked in his own body: in the group where his father took him, they were shown the same repetitive program for children day after day and he had no way to make it clear that it was fatal to him I'm tired of it. One day he heard his mother wish him death in despair. However, Martin did not break down - first he learned to control his own thoughts so as not to fall into depression, after which he re-mastered interaction with outside world. For example, I learned to tell time by shadows. Gradually, his physical skills began to return - eventually, the aromatherapist working with him noticed this, after which Martin was urgently sent to medical Center to undergo all necessary tests and begin the recovery period.
Martin is now 39 years old. Consciousness has fully returned to him, as has partial control over his own body, although he still moves in a wheelchair. However, after waking up from his coma, Martin met his wife Joanna and also wrote a book, Shadow Boy, in which he talked about the time he was trapped in his own body.
Dreams in a coma
Musician Fred Hersh has been nominated several times for a Grammy Award, and in 2011 he was recognized as Jazz Pianist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. Today he continues to give concerts around the world.
In 2008, Hersh was diagnosed with AIDS, against which the musician almost immediately began to develop dementia, after which he fell into a coma. Hersh spent several months in this state, and after emerging from it, he realized that he had lost almost all his motor skills. For about 10 months he was forced to remain bedridden. During the rehabilitation process, his main source of motivation was the synthesizer that Hersh played while in his hospital bed.
Photo: Getty Images/Josh Sisk/For The Washington Post
Almost a year later, the musician managed to accomplish the almost impossible - he achieved a complete recovery. And in 2011, based on the experience he had while in a coma, he wrote the concert My coma dreams (“My dreams in a coma.” - Izvestia). The work includes parts for 11 musical instruments and vocalist, and also involves the use of multimedia images. In 2014, the concert was released on DVD.
Longest coma
The longest living person in a coma was American Terry Wallace. In June 1984, he and a friend were involved in a car accident - in a mountainous area, the car fell off a cliff, his friend died, and Terry himself fell into a coma. According to doctors, there was practically no hope that he would be able to get out of this condition. However, 19 years later, in June 2003, Terry suddenly came to his senses.
Soon he began to recognize relatives, but his memory was limited by the events of 19 years ago. For example, he felt like a 20-year-old man, and his my own daughter refused to find out because last time When he saw her, she was a baby. And, from Terry's point of view, she should have remained so. In addition, Terry suffered from short-term amnesia - he could retain any event in his memory for no longer than a few minutes, after which he immediately forgot about it, or could not recognize the person he had just met. This phenomenon is reported by many who have experienced coma for at least a few days, but most often memory problems are short-term in nature.
Among other things, Wallace physically could not imagine that he had spent the last 19 years unconscious and the world had changed significantly, and due to changes in the functioning of the brain, he had almost forgotten how to hide his thoughts. Now he literally says what he thinks.
At first, Terry could only utter fragmentary words, but gradually he regained the ability to speak coherently. He remained paralyzed for life, but fully recovered consciousness and the ability to communicate coherently.
After a special study, doctors came to the conclusion that his brain was able to independently connect the remaining “working” neurons and thus reboot.
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Her mother, Katherine, remembered that day perfectly all her life - firstly, it was the 22nd wedding anniversary of her and Edward’s father, and secondly, her daughter, just before oblivion, managed to ask her mother not to leave her.
Eduard O'Bar photograph
And anxious days began for Eduarda’s parents. They all expected that their daughter would come out of the coma, but days passed, then weeks, then months, and Eduarda continued to be in a state of sleep.
No one knew then that this would be the longest coma in the history of medicine, which would last 42 years. And then the girl’s parents stood by her bed day and night, turned her over to prevent bedsores, fed her through a tube and did not take their eyes off the machines, waiting every minute for a miraculous awakening.
Eduard O'Bar photograph
Alas, Eduarda was destined to become the record holder for staying in comatose. Keeping her promise, the mother continued to take care of her, and in order to pay the hospital bills, the girl’s father had to work three jobs. But they still hoped, and in the end they kept their promise, not abandoning their daughter for the rest of their lives. So, first, Eduarda’s father died in 1976, and in 2008, Katherine died, leaving Eduarda in the care of her younger sister.
But Eduarda’s fragile life continued, many media outlets had already written about it, and people who nicknamed Eduarda Sleeping Snow White began to come to Katherine’s family home. It was reminiscent of a pilgrimage, as many believed that touching the sleeping Eduarda would bring health and good luck.
Eduard O'Bar photograph
Eduarda O'Bara lived to be 59 years old and died in 2012, having spent 42 long years in a coma.
IN different time There were heated debates about the humanity of such life support, but for Katherine, who devoted 35 years of her life to caring for her daughter, the question was never raised in this way. Firstly, she was bound by the promise she made to her seriously ill daughter many years ago, and secondly, all these years both she and her husband lived in the hope that the coma would end sooner or later, and their Eduarda would be with them again . However, she was with them - Katherine read aloud to her, played music records for her, organized her birthdays, and did everything as if her daughter was just laying down to sleep. As time has shown, it was a very long dream, lasting more than four decades.
Eduard O'Bar photograph
A book was written based on the family's history, and many celebrities and politicians visited Katherine's house, including Bill Clinton; The media covered this story widely. And Eduarda O'Bara went down in medical history by spending 42 years in a diabetic coma.
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Translated from ancient Greek, the word “coma” means deep sleep. In this state, a person undergoes physiological decline, loses reactions and reflexes, but continues to breathe and live.
Often the coma ends in the death of the patient. But sometimes miracles happen and awakening occurs. The longest coma in the world with awakening lasted almost 19 years. This case changed the opinions of doctors about the comatose state and gives hope to many people.
It all happened in Stone County, Arkansas. On July 13, 1984, a young farmer and auto mechanic, Terry Wallis, who was 20 years old at the time (born April 7, 1964), decided to go for a ride with his friend Chub Lowell in a pickup truck. The car had an accident and fell from the bridge from a height of almost 8 meters.
The pickup truck was found lying on its roof in a dry river bed. Rescuers rescued Terry, who suffered a head injury and was already in a coma, as well as Csab, who had a serious spinal injury, and died a week later.
All internal organs and Terry's bones were intact. He received only minor bruises and, most importantly, a small abrasion above his eyebrow. It is likely that it was this blow that led the guy to a comatose state.
- A young farmer and auto mechanic before the tragedy.
With his wife Sandy.
Touching photo Terry is in a coma, along with his daughter, who less than a year. He will only be able to communicate with her when she is 20 years old.
With his wife (left) and daughter (right).
Staying in a coma
Following the accident, Terry was admitted to a local hospital. The doctors gave him a chance and said that if he woke up within a year, then the likelihood of continuing a normal life was quite high.
But Terry did not come to his senses. Not in a year, not in five years, not even in fifteen.
His parents Angela and Jerry Wallis continued to believe in miracles. They went into serious debt to pay for their son's life support. They did not lose heart, even though the doctors were already giving disappointing forecasts.
Keeping Terry alive cost about $30,000 a month. He was denied medical insurance. The Terry Wallis Foundation was created, but only raised about $1,000.
4 months before the tragedy he had a wedding. And 6 weeks before the accident, Terry gave birth to a daughter, who was named Amber. His wife Sandy remained faithful to him for three years his stay in a coma. But then she married another man and gave birth to three more children.
Terry's parents did not condemn Sandy, but characterized her with bad side. Sendy explained her departure by saying that Amber needed a father, and she herself was not ready to sacrifice her youth for the sake of the insignificant chance of her husband’s recovery.
Meanwhile, Terry's parents and other relatives continued to support him in every possible way. They read books to him, turned on radio programs, and talked to him. On every holiday, everyone gathered together in his room, fed holiday dishes(grinded in a blender), gave him gifts, which they laid out on his bed, and rolled him around the hospital.
Almost 19 years passed like this.
Coming out of a coma
On June 11, 2003, Angela Wallis was perhaps even happier than when she gave birth to her Terry, because on that day he came out of his coma. All his relatives had been waiting for this for 18 years, 10 months and 28 days. This is how long the longest coma in the world lasted with awakening.
Terry Wallis woke up. He had not seen the world for almost 19 years. He recognized his parents and was surprised when they told him that he was married, but then he remembered that he had a daughter, whom, of course, he last saw only in infancy.
When Amber came to him, he told her that she was not his daughter, since his daughter was 1.5 months old, and an adult girl was sitting in front of him. But later he realized the time had passed. Parents showed photos of Amber in different years. Later, he told his daughter that he must get well in order to come up and hug her, and also that he regrets that he did not see with his own eyes how she grows up.
Although Terry Wallis was conscious and able to communicate, he suffered from amnesia. He remembered only the most impressive moments of his life. He could listen to a tune he had recently heard (he liked country music) again, as if he was hearing it for the first time. From past life he remembered how he was doing housework on the farm, and also some time before the fateful trip, he remembered how he was getting ready to go. After waking up, Terry could not move; he could only turn his head in one direction.
In addition, after emerging from a coma, Terry lost all tact in conversation and could directly tell a person what he thought about him, he forgot how to lie. So, one day he told a nurse at the hospital that he thought she was sexy and would like to make love to her.
Photo with his mother Angela, who looked after him in a coma and after waking up.
Terry Wallis is in a coma.
The mother devotes every free minute to her son.
Grandson, granddaughter, daughter and Terry himself.
Angela Wallis heroically persevered throughout the 19 years.
Mother and father.
Terry Wallis' brother and other relatives prepare to be interviewed.
Sandy, wife. In the foreground family photo and marriage certificate.
Wallis lost the ability to feel full. Therefore, it was necessary to feed him strictly in doses. He could not understand that he had already eaten enough, for which he could feel resentment towards his family, since he believed that he was underfed. Despite a sedentary lifestyle and good nutrition, he did not gain weight.
After the coma, he began to have a negative attitude towards bad habits scolded relatives for cigarettes and alcohol. Angela believed that her son communicated with angels during a coma and therefore became so correct (and also could not lie). He himself said that he was very happy to live and life is the most beautiful thing.
Terry Wallis became famous. His ex-wife Sandy tried to take custody of him through the courts to make money, his parents said, but they remained guardians. He starred in documentaries"Bodyshock" (2003) and "Coma" 2007. His story has become the subject of study for many doctors.
- The longest coma in the world with awakening was that of Terry Wallis and lasted 18 years, 10 months and 28 days, from July 13, 1984 to June 11, 2003. Terry was in a car accident.
- July 13, 1984 - the day of the Terry Wallis tragedy, it was Friday the 13th.
- In some media, probably for dramatic reasons, they indicate July 13, 2013 as the date of awakening, in order to later write that he woke up exactly on the day when he crashed his car. But the correct date for Terry's awakening is June 11, 2003.
- Three years after the onset of the coma, his wife married another man, having a three-year-old daughter with Terry.
- Some sources indicate that Wallis and his friend were drunk at the time of the accident. But relatives claim that the guys did not drink alcohol that evening. They probably could have hidden this fact so as not to spoil their reputation.
- Some media reported that Terry's daughter became a stripper. It is not true. Amber has a family - a husband, children and has always led a decent lifestyle.
- Relatives created the Terry Wallis Foundation, which raised only about $1,000, while it cost about $30,000 a month to maintain life.
- When he woke up, he asked for mineral water.
- As of 2018, nothing is known about Terry or his family.
- In fact, the longest coma in the world was that of Eduardo O'Bara and lasted 42 years. When the girl was 16 years old, she fell into a diabetic coma and died at the age of 59 without ever waking up.
Reasons for leaving their coma
Experts are inclined to believe that Wallis came out of a coma due to the fact that his brain built the previous nerve pathways that were destroyed due to injury. This allowed him to partially regain consciousness. However, he was unable to completely improve his condition.
Some also claim that Terry's brain contains new neural pathways that are not found in other people's brains.
Terry Wallis now
As of the end of 2018, unfortunately, no data could be found on Terry Wallis. It is unknown whether he is alive, and if so, what is the state of his health. The fate of his relatives is also unknown.