A Belgian man who doctors thought was in a coma¹ for 23 years was conscious all along, it has been revealed.

据透露，一位处于昏迷状态长达23年的比利时男子的主治医师认为，该男子实际上一直都有知觉。

Rom Houben now uses a special keyboard to communicate

Medical staff believed Rom Houben had sunk irretrievably（不可挽回地） into a coma（昏迷） after he was injured in a car crash in 1983.

The University of Liege doctor who discovered in 2006 that, although Mr Houben was paralysed（瘫痪）, his brain was working, said the case was not unique.

"I was shouting, but no-one could hear me," Mr Houben, now 46, was quoted as saying by a German magazine.

According to Der Spiegel, Mr Houben, who can now communicate by using a special keyboard, has described how his body did not respond when he woke up after the accident.

'Second birth'

He has also said that he felt powerless as doctors and nurses tried to speak to him before giving up hope, and that he "dreamt the time away" as the years passed.

It was only in 2006 that a scan revealed that Mr Houben's brain was in fact almost entirely² functioning.

"I will never forget the day they discovered me," Mr Houben was quoted as saying. "It was like a second birth."

Mr Houben's story was revealed in a paper written by Steven Laureys, a doctor at Liege University who wrote a recent paper that detailed³ the case.

In it, Mr Laureys said that in about 40% of cases in which people are classified as being in a vegetative state（处于植物人状态）, closer inspection⁴ reveals signs of consciousness（意识，知觉）.