June 4, 2007
Waking From A Coma
Imagine Waking From A Coma After 19 Years
Waking from a coma after 19 years has to be one of the most bizarre experiences anybody could imagine happening to them. It probably doesn’t surprise you that waking from a coma is very different from how it’s portrayed in the movies.
Left: Jan Grzebski wakes from coma after 19 years
Many accounts say that victims waking from a coma feel like they have been completely reborn:
“Regaining consciousness was a slow, arduous process that took a few weeks. Since I had absolutely no recollection of any life before that immediate moment, life to me was just beginning for the first time. It was as if I was being born at the age of 22. But I was unaware of my age then and still have difficulty remembering it today.
Just as a newborn child would have to do, I had to relearn to tie my shoes, walk, talk, read, write, eat with silverware, etc. Life was exciting for me, just having been born. I was suddenly awakened to all the sights that accompanied the sounds I had heard while I was unable to open my eyes.” - coma victim
BUT . . . Imagine waking from a coma after 19 years to find out you’re country has changed and is unrecognizable to what you remember.
A Polish guy, Jan Grzebski was hit by a train in 1988 and sent into a deep coma . . . Imagine waking from a coma to find that:
1989 - The Iron Curtain Came Down, the fall of the Berlin Wall
1991 - The Soviet Union Collapsed
2004 - Poland joins the EU
When he was sent into a coma:
1988 - Tea and Vinegar were the only available things in the shop, and meat was still being rationed
Nowadays:
He cannot believe the amount of choice in the shops and seeing every man and his dog carrying round a cellphone is completely alien to him.
He also says he has no reasons to complain about anything, he’s just happy to have awoken.
“A true inspiration to everyone”
Waking From A Coma - Goodbye Lenin Style
This incredible news story appears to echo one of the greatest German films ever made in my opinion; the similarities to ‘Goodbye Lenin’ are remarkable.
The Plot
Set in the East Berlin of 1989 . Alexander Kerner’s mother, Christiane Kerner, an ardent supporter of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, suffers a heart attack when she sees Alex being arrested in an anti-government demonstration and falls into a coma shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
After eight months she awakes, but is severely weakened both physically and mentally, and doctors say that any shock may cause another, possibly fatal, attack. Alex realizes that her discovery of recent events would be too much for her to bear, and so sets out to maintain the illusion that things are as normal in the German Democratic Republic.
To this end, he and his family revert the flat to its previous drab decor, dress in their old clothes, and feed the bed-ridden Christiane new, Western produce from old labeled jars. For a time the deception works, but gradually becomes increasingly complicated and elaborate.
Despite everything, Christiane occasionally witnesses strange occurrences, such as a gigantic Coca-Cola advertisement banner unfurling on a building outside the apartment. Alexander and a friend with film-making ambitions edit old tapes of news broadcasts and create their own fake special reports to explain them away.
The Most Surreal Scene You Could Imagine
Both Christiane Kerner and the Jan Grzebski must have had a similar surreal experience when viewing their unrecognizable homes.
Picture the Scene
Christiane wanders outside the flat while Alex is asleep, and sees all her neighbors’ old furniture piled up in the street for garbage collection, a car dealer selling BMWs instead of Trabants and advertisements for such Western corporations as IKEA. Then, a huge military helicopter flies past carrying the upper half of an enormous statue of Lenin, which at an angle appears to be offering Christiane his hand.
The movie has been described as “A political comedy that reaches you right down in your soul, reminding us without any Benigni-ish moral frivolity that life sure is complicated, but it is also beautiful.”
This is a unique, tender, uplifting story that will jerk a tear in one moment, and then have you in stitches the next, so wake up from your coma and see it for yourselves!