23 Year Ordeal

Dear God:

For 23 years Rom Houben was trapped in his own body, unable to communicate with his doctors or family. They presumed he was in a vegetative state following a near-fatal car crash in 1983.

But then doctors used a state-of-the-art scanning system on the brain of the martial arts enthusiast, which showed it was functioning almost normally.

And:

Houben then suffered years of being effectively trapped in his own body as care personnel and doctors at the hospital in Zolder tried to communicate with him, but eventually gave up hope that he would ever come round.

23 years! Can you imagine being trapped in yourself, unable to communicate with the world around you, for nearly two and a half decades? It truly sounds like a terrible torture, and pretty close to the worst thing in the world. I have literally no idea how this fella was still sane at the end of what must be the very definition of an ordeal...