man comes out of coma after 19 years

[armaghniac]

 Monday, June 04, 2007

By Peter Popham

A Polish railway worker has woken after 19 years of a coma to discover that his world has changed beyond all recognition.

"When I went into a coma, there was only tea and vinegar in the shops," Jan Grzebski, now 65, told a Polish news channel.

"Meat was rationed and there were huge petrol queues everywhere."

Mr Grzebski lost consciousness in 1988, after he was hit by a train. Doctors gave him only two or three years to live. But because of the tireless care of his wife Gertruda, who moved him every hour to prevent bedsores, he remained in good health. He was, however, completely removed from the dramatic changes across the world.

After regaining consciousness, he told his family that he had vague memories of family gatherings and of his relatives talking to him, trying to provoke a response. There was plenty for them to tell him about, if they had wished to startle him with amazing news.

When Mr Grzebski lost consciousnessin 1988, another Polish working man, the electrician Lech Walesa, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, was back at work after years under house arrest. But the Communist authorities still had him under close surveillance. Within two years, Communism had collapsed and Mr Walesa was elected President of Poland with 75 per cent of the vote. Walesa turned out to be a flop as president. And when he stood again in 2000, Mr Grzebski's relatives would have pointed out, that only 1 per cent of the electorate voted for him. By that time, Poland had a market economy, communism was receding rapidly into the past, but the injured railwayman was still dead to the world.

His wife, who was said by Mr Grzebski's doctor to have "done the job of an entire intensive care team", continued to change his position every hour. "I cried a lot, and prayed a lot," she said of those long and lonely years. "Those who came to see us kept asking, 'When is he going to die?' But he's not dead."

Mr Grzebski's remarkable story is a real life version of the film Good Bye, Lenin!, in which Katrin Sass, an East Berliner, suffers a heart attack and slips into a coma in 1989 - thereby missing the fall of the Berlin Wall and the sudden and dramatic transformation of everyday life as the communist system collapses. "Mother slept through the relentless triumph of capitalism," says the character, Alex, her son.

When she comes back to life, the doctor warns Alex that a shock might kill her, so he goes to drastic lengths to conceal from her the revolution that has occurred, rescuing tatty East German furniture, restoring the dingy communist decor, persuading friends to visit dressed as Young Communist scouts.

Gertruda Grzebska took no such precautions when her husband came round, and the miracle of modern Poland flooded his senses. He couldn't help noticing that people were complaining just as much as during the years of empty shops and martial law. "Now I see people on the streets with cellphones and there are so many goods in the shops it makes my head spin," he confessed.

"What amazes me is all these people who walk around with their mobile phones and yet they never stop moaning."

[armaghniac]

You can imagine someone here who came out of coma after 19 years, Paisley in government with Martin McGuinness, Ireland flooded with immigrants.... On the GAA front you have Dublin and Meath, not too strange, but an era of Ulster finals in Croke Pk and all-Ulster AIFs has passed by and you have places like Clare and Waterford more prominent in the hurling than Wexford or Tipp.

[ziggysego]

You can imagine someone here who came out of coma after 19 years, Paisley in government with Martin McGuinness, Ireland flooded with immigrants.... On the GAA front you have Dublin and Meath, not too strange, but an era of Ulster finals in Croke Pk and all-Ulster AIFs has passed by and you have places like Clare and Waterford more prominent in the hurling than Wexford or Tipp.

Don't forget:

Soccer in Croke Park

Greencastle... All Ireland Club Champions (I'll milk it for a bit longer)

RTÉ still getting away with substandard coverage

GPA

[Hardy]

And if anybody told them about Dessie Farrell and the GPA they'd ask to be put to sleep again. In which case, you could just play them one of Dessie's speeches.

[armaghniac]

Cross winning the Armagh championship... maybe not so strange unless you'd been away a long time.

But no smoking in pubs, no smoking in Croke Pk (in theory)  a lot of people in the 80's wouldn't believe you if you said that.

[mannix]

I wonder if I went into a coma for 19 years will Mayo have won Sam.The polish fella was in one for 19 and still none, even though it was 36 years since they last won when he went in.
Sobering thought!!

[Square Ball]

are you sure he wasnt working in burger king/kfc/mcDonalds?

[Star Spangler]

Going into a shop and BUYING water.  I can imagine what people from the oul days would have said.

[AZOffaly]

Actually it would be very interesting to do a comparison for that lad, or a similar lad, in Western Europe. imagine the differences in a huge number of areas. The last 20 years has seen unbelieveable changes in our day to day lives, largely due to technology and disposable income. Off the top of my head, and there are many, many others.

Transport
Cheap Flights.
Holidays in places like the Carribean and Hawai'i for 'normal' people.
Shopping in New York!!
Hi Speed Trains


Entertainment
SKY
DVDs
CDs
Sky Plus
I-Pods and MP3 players


Currency
the Euro

Food & Drink
Off Licences carrying Wine and Beer from all over the world, and normal people buying them
Eating out FOR NO REASON
Bar-B-Ques in the Summer at private houses
Drinking at home with friends

Communications
Email,
Mobile Phones
and of course D'Internet, featuring the GAA Discussion Board

[Kerry Mike]

When a mug of coffee was just a mug of boiling water with a spoon of instant and a dash of milk and a spoon of sugar, now its all fancy italian names and coffee from some exotic location and big mugs of frothy milk and worse it takes about 3 weeks to brew and filter into your cup. Latte me hole.

[thebandit]

I wonder what he makes of Stephen Kernan?