Ooh, wouldn't that be great. And y'know, it just might happen. One week we have news of a drug that "wakes" the comatose. The next week word of a man whose brain rewired itself after 22 years. The next week a demonstration that a PVS patient (here) has both will and consciousness, despite the inability to communicate.
Of course we've had many another story over the years about comatose patients -- often at risk of being dehydrated / starved to death -- who knew EVERYTHING that was going on around them but couldn't so much as move a muscle to say so. And a lot more stories from medically unconscious patients who were "out of body" and watched the surgery being performed on them and could relate the details later.
All of what you write is true. I'm hoping that public knowledge of what is going on reaches critical mass.