Sunday, June 3, 2007

Polish man wakes up after 19 years in coma


A man from Poland who spent 19 years in a coma has woken up and will now have to adapt to a country where the communists are no longer in power.

Jan Grzebski fell into a coma in 1988 after he was hit by a train, and said he owed his survival to his wife, Gertruda.

"She's the one who always took care of me. She saved my life," he said.

Grzebski was a father of four at the time of the accident. He is now trying to acquaint himself with 11 grandchildren.

Doctors had not expected Grzebski to survive, let alone emerge from the coma.

"I cried a lot, and I prayed a lot. Those who came to see us kept asking: 'When is he going to die?' But he's not dead," said Getruda.

Poland's communist regime was still clinging onto power when Grzebski had his accident, only losing its grip the following year, in 1989.

On the brash neon-lit streets of new European Union member Poland, the period seems a distant memory.

"What amazes me today is all these people who walk around with their mobile phones and never stop moaning. I've got nothing to complain about," said Grzebski.

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