The Polish Rip Van Winkle

An amazing story from Reuters about a man who lost nineteen years, but not his life:

A 65-year-old railwayman who fell into a coma following an accident in communist Poland regained consciousness 19 years later to find democracy and a market economy, Polish media reported on Saturday.

Wheelchair-bound Jan Grzebski, whom doctors had given only two or three years to live following his 1988 accident, credited his caring wife Gertruda with his revival.

"It was Gertruda that saved me, and I'll never forget it," Grzebski told news channel TVN24.

"For 19 years Mrs Grzebska did the job of an experienced intensive care team, changing her comatose husband's position every hour to prevent bed-sore infections," Super Express reported Dr Boguslaw Poniatowski as saying.

Every hour?! That is true love. Fortunately for Grzebski, he went into a coma in a Communist country, not in Florida.

Comments

[MMajor Fan]

Interestingly, BBC does a much nicer job with this story, with the following about his wife:

Mrs Grzebski is reported to have moved her husband every hour to prevent bed sores.

"I cried a lot, and I prayed a lot," Mrs Grzebski said on Polsat television.

"Those who came to see us kept asking: 'When is he going to die?' But he's not dead."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6715313.stm

I'm glad the BBC included the emphasis on faith and love. And a nice photo!

Yes, I saw that awful story in Florida about the "nursing home." (Ponders place in hell for certain people.)

And a good thing eager folks with a needle weren't looking to "euthanize" him because he's "brain dead and suffering." Oh wait, that's right, they starve people to death. Ugh.

Anyway, it's wonderful to see such a humane story of love and faith, and a great reminder to never give up on a loved one's health.

[Christine the Soccer Mom]

Texas wouldn't be any better. No matter WHAT his wife wanted. At least in Florida you can be relatively sure that if his wife wanted him alive no one would actively stop her from keeping him that way. They just over-ride you in Texas.