'I Was in Ecuador - I Had no Memory of Going There': What it Is Like to Be in a Coma

The Guardian ^ | Tuesday 4 July 2017 | Danny Scheinmann

[nickcarraway]

My own experience of this unfathomable reach of consciousness drew me to explore uncharted territory in my novel The Half Life of Joshua

hen I woke up, I couldn’t remember what year it was and I didn’t know why a doctor was standing over me, speaking Spanish. When I quizzed him, he told me it was 5 March 1992 and that I was in Ecuador. I couldn’t remember anything that happened in 1992, least of all going to Ecuador.

Apparently, I had been in a bus crash; there had been a collision with a lorry. It was news to me. In the black hole of my mind I knew only one thing: that wherever I was, I had been there with my girlfriend Stella, and that she had died in this accident of which I had no memory. A moment later, the doctor confirmed what I already seemed to know; Stella had indeed died in the crash. But how could I have known that, when I couldn’t remember anything else? How did this information reach my subconscious?

The events surrounding the crash and its aftermath were fictionalised in my first novel, Random Acts of Heroic Love, but I always knew I had unfinished business. Although my memory slowly returned, I still don’t remember the accident itself.

When I began writing The Half Life of Joshua Jones – a novel about a man who becomes obsessed with the life of a stranger in a coma – I had no story in mind, only an itch to scratch. I wanted to explore the gossamer interface between the conscious and subconscious worlds and how one bleeds into the other. My starting point was the coma, so I interviewed and read the testimonies of those who had survived one.

[MUDDOG]

I’ve heard of that happening with Vegas, but never Ecuador.

[Malcolm Reynolds]

Neil spent several months in Africa – a continent he had never visited before – doing meaningful charity work. He lived with two women in a house built on stilts over a lake, where they would have sex and go diving together.

Neil has a very high opinion of himself if he actually thought that coma life was real.

[MtnClimber]

I have ridden on many busses in Ecuador on roads around Quito that wind through the Andes. That one could crash is a no brainer if you have ever experienced some of the crazy driving.

[Jack Hammer]

Woke up in a hospital one night, with no memory of how I got there.

Fifty years later, I still can’t remember anything about that night.

[Two Kids' Dad]

I think I’ll start a band and call it Gossamer Interface. It’s catchy.

[x]

So it’s like being drunk?

[Ransomed]

I knew a guy who was crossing a street and a car hit him, really bad injuries. He woke up in the hospital the next day with no memory of the last week and of being hit. What’s worse is after a while I guess he then realized he couldn’t recall big chunks of his childhood, like whole years just gone. He never got them back. The brain is a strange organ.

Freegards

[Malcolm Reynolds]

Yes, but your music would be esoteric and your followers insufferable snobs.

[Rapscallion]

So it’s like being drunk?

Not really. I had a one day episode where I wandered around. I walked into a pool with my clothes on thinking I was in my bathing suit. The pool was Olympic size. The people were frolicking. The memory seems so clear that if you told me it really happened, I could not dis-believe you.

A year later I went back. The pool is actually a wading pool in a hotel lobby. I was lost and in trouble until my daughter walked me out of the pool. I was in the hospital for a week. They never found the cause.

This may seem undramatic and it was that, but so real I that am still astonished to remember the "reality" of it.

[mabarker1]

I recently was in the Hospital and underwent surgery that repaired a ruptured bowel that had I not been in the Hospital I would have died. A few days into my recovery I tore the internal stitches and they had to go back in to fix that, then was put into an induced coma to recover and while in the coma I saw myself strapped to a operating table on the ceiling with 5 Taiwanese Doctors below Me deciding what Organs they going to harvest first!!!

That is all I remember from the induced coma.

I was in Huntersville,NC THE WHOLE TIME.

The drugs that they gave Me were some heavy duty stuff!!!

[Oztrich Boy]

Julian Assange?

[Chode]

damn... lucky ya dint end up wi a colostomy bag hangin off you

[nickcarraway]

[a fool in paradise]

Peter Lorre?

[mabarker1]

Yes Sir. God spared Me for some reason.

I almost had to have Dialis but was spared that as well.

Spent 2 months in the Hospital and then in to Rehabilitation to learn how to walk again.

And btw “golden living rehabilitation” center is ANYTHING BUT GOLDEN!!!

And I just lost my mediscare coverage as of 07/01 because I get too much money on SSI.

NOW I HAVE A $6320+ deductible to meet for any kind of coverage.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Sadly, it sounds like crosstalk in the stream of consciousness. Some switching error resulted in you having some poor Taiwanese person’s end of life out of body experience.

On the good side, at least he or she was able to visit the United States and Huntersville NC before their passing!

[Chode]

damn... and unfortunately the Rep plan won't be any better than 0bammycare

[William Tell]

mabarker1 said: "I recently was in the Hospital ..."

My wife came to visit me one morning several days after bypass surgery. I told her, "Don't ... touch ... me !"

She correctly surmised that I was in intense pain. She called the nurse who suggested that she could provide more morphine. While entering the order on the computer the nurse discovered that my morning dose had been overlooked. The nurse ran off and returned shortly with a double dose of the stuff.

Later that evening I experienced the most terrifying dreams / hallucinations surrounding the treatment I was getting. I became so paranoid of the staff that I insisted that they call my wife back to the hospital and for her to bring my watch. I didn't even trust the clock on the wall.

[cpdiii]

I have ridden on many busses in Ecuador on roads around Quito that wind through the Andes. That one could crash is a no brainer if you have ever experienced some of the crazy driving.

Circa 1972 going from Ibarra to Quito. A very large rock had slid off the mountain. The driver of the bus swerved around it with his front wheels but it did hit the back wheels and took them off. To the left was a several hundred foot slope. The driver managed to put the bus on its side against the mountain as he had no brakes. He did a good job. It was a night. We were on the altiplano at about 10,000 feet. Damn near froze to death until another bus came.