Mother says her son received wrong medical diagnosis after 1983 crash
BRUSSELS - For 23 torturous years, Rom Houben says he lay trapped in his paralyzed body, aware of what was going on around him but unable to tell anyone or even cry out.
The car-crash victim had been diagnosed as being in a vegetative state but appears to have been conscious the whole time. An expert using a specialized type of brain scan that was not available in the 1980s finally realized it, and unlocked Houben’s mind again.
“Powerlessness. Utter powerlessness. At first I was angry, then I learned to live with it,” he said, punching the message into the screen during an interview with the Belgian RTBF network, aired Monday. He has called his rescue his “renaissance.”
The 46-year-old Houben is now communicating with one finger and a special touchscreen on his wheelchair.
Over the years, Houben’s family refused to accept the word of his doctors, firmly believing their son knew what was happening around him, and gave no thought to letting him die, said his mother, Fina. She was vindicated when the breakthrough came.
“At that moment, you think, ‘Oh, my God. See, now you know.’ I was always convinced,” she said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
The discovery took place three years ago but only recently came to light, after publication of a study on the misdiagnosis of people with consciousness disorders.
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A coma is a state of unconsciousness in which the eyes are closed and the patient cannot be roused. 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 cannot reason or respond.
During Houben’s two lost decades, his eyesight was poor, but the experts say he could hear doctors, nurses and visitors to his bedside, and feel the touch of a relative. He says that during that time, he heard his father had died, but he was unable to show any emotion.
Over the years, Houben’s skeptical mother took him to the United States five times for tests. More searching got her in touch with Laureys, who put Houben through a PET scan.
“We saw his brain was almost normal,” said neuropsychologist Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse, who has worked with Houben for three years.
MSNBC's Dr. Nancy Snyderman discussed the case:
Naturally, the issue of "health care dollars" came into the discussion. Dr. Snyderman and her guests invoked the names of Karen Ann Quinlan and Terri Schiavo, long-time "hot potatoes" of the right-to-life / right-to-die debate. Snyderman advocated for keeping politics out of a very personal medical decision and pushed for keeping the decision "close to home." The best lesson she endorsed was to make sure your family knows your final wishes.
With our nation's present wrestling with ObamaCare and the rumored "death panels", what would the impact be on families who hold out hope for a loved one in a "vegetative" or "locked-in" state? Would the state allow for ample time and dollars to test a patient before deciding to "pull the plug?" Or would the family be forced into a hasty decision, since money rather than time would be of the essence?
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