A British man in a 23-year-long coma was actually conscious the whole time.
Rom Houben was involved in a car crash over two decades ago and medical experts have always believed he was in a coma and his consciousness "extinct".
However, it has been discovered he was actually just paralysed and could hear everything going on around him.
Three years ago a breakthrough in technology revealed he was functioning almost normally.
He said: "All that time I just literally dreamed of a better life. Frustration is too small a word to describe what I felt."
The former martial arts fan is unlikely to leave hospital but can now communicate with friends and family and read books through a specially-adapted computer.
Copyright (C) bangshowbiz.com 2010.
Last updated: 26 November 2009, 16:30
The links provided allow you to bookmark this page into your favourite social media website. For users with JavaScript disabled copy and paste the URL from the address bar into your chosen social bookmarking site.