Saturday

21 People Who Woke Up From a Coma Talk About the Things That Surprised Them the Most

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Being in a coma can be a life-changing experience — people usually talk about strange or scary visions they’ve had out there, some of them met their dead relatives and others just felt nothing except emptiness and darkness. But the toughest thing is usually getting out of this state because you never know what you’ll see around you and how much time has actually passed.

To find out what it was like entering the world again after being in a coma, a curious Reddit user who calls themselves _bread-boi_ created a thread on Reddit, and we at Bright Side went through it to choose 21 of the most incredible stories for you.

I was in a coma for 4 days. When I woke up everyone was talking about the baby boy I had. I had lost my long term memory and didn’t even remember being pregnant. After a couple of days I got my long term memory back and remembered everything up until my second surgery then nothing until I woke up. My son was my third surgery. @PennyCundiff
My husband was in a medically induced coma for a week after a car accident. When he woke up, he said that he remembered getting to work (he never made it to work, the accident happened on the way) and that he had just been going about his normal day when he suddenly woke up in the hospital. He couldn’t believe a whole week had passed. @missquit
About 20 years ago, my cousin had a severe head injury from a fall. He was in a coma for almost 4 weeks. When he woke up, he fairly quickly discovered that his memory was eidetic. He could repeat entire conversations back word for word, and even tell you the date and time you said something. Also, he could memorize images with just a few seconds glance. His memory is still eidetic today. @cheezemeister_x

I was in a coma for a week shortly after Christmas time. Went home afterward and found a bunch of turtleneck sweaters in my closet I had never seen. Yelled to my mom about why there were a bunch of ugly turtleneck sweaters in my closet. She informed me I had purchased them myself with gift card money from Christmas. Turns out comas make you hate turtleneck sweaters. @SlevinKelevra87
After a coma, I had some hair loss in certain areas that wouldn’t grow hair for months. When it came back, it was jet black. My hair is brown normally. Eventually, over the last 6 years the color adjusted back to brown again. @Rthoens89
My boyfriend’s mother was in a coma for about 30 days because of a heart condition caused by diet pills. Before she woke up, she was an avid smoker, almost a pack a day. But when she finally did wake up, she was shocked to know that she was a smoker. Basically said “I used to smoke??” And then never did again. Definitely for the best. @Binxgamesandguitar
Back in the ’90s, my great-grandfather had a stroke. He was in a coma for 3 weeks, and when he woke up, he could not speak English. All he could speak was the Choctaw language. He had learned it when he was a kid, because his family lived right near a Choctaw reserve, and he played with a lot of those kids. He spoke it fluently at that time, but forgot it over his life. This went on for around 10 days, and then he woke up from a night’s sleep and could suddenly speak only English again, not remembering a word of Choctaw. @GoldH2O

My mom was in an induced coma for 3 months. When she woke up she said she hated how perfect her hands looked. Her nails and cuticles were perfect and clean from not being used. @CherrySlusheez
My wife was in a medically induced coma for 2 weeks. When she woke she had very wrong memories. They were all based on conversations people had while in the room with her. For example, she thought they flew her to Washington, DC for treatment. While she was in a coma, my father-in-law mentioned how he had just flown back into town from DC on a work trip. Somehow, she overheard this while out and her brain interpreted it to mean SHE flew to DC. Even after we explained to her where she was, it took days for her to come to terms with reality. @kp1877
A good friend of our family went into a coma for 6 months. Finally when he woke up, he was stunned as to why his wife looked so old. He actually lost the last 15 years of his memory (he knew he had 2 children, but they were babies and he didn’t even remember his third child). And his memory never came back. Learning that he had missed all of his children growing up was the hardest for him. @BsNLucky

I caught encephalitis and it ended up causing a grand mal seizure, which sent me into a coma for 3 days. After waking up, the most prominent thing I noticed is that, when listening to music, including songs I’ve listened to since a young age, it seemed like they were playing faster like about 1.5x faster. I eventually balanced out, but it was a real trip. @HandofTheKing1
When I was about 14, I fell off a car park roof and landed on my head. Had a brain hemorrhage. Woke up in hospital 2 or 3 days later and couldn’t speak at all. I was like mumbling noises like a baby. The only thing I could say, which I said a lot was, “where are my fish and chips?” Turned out I’d had the accident while my mom had gone out to pick us up some fish and chips for dinner. @BigBizzle232
I was in 2 induced comas. The second coma was only a few days after my first one, I woke up with no memory and thought that I was a man because of the catheter between my legs. I am a woman. @Zombierabbitz
My dad was in a coma for about 8 weeks. When he woke up, his eyes had changed colors completely. He had green eyes before and they changed drastically to blue. It wasn’t even a subtle change. @StSym

I was in a coma for 9 days. When I woke up, I was still on a ventilator. When they took me off the ventilator, my body didn’t remember how to breathe on its own. I literally had to relearn how to breathe. I had no natural sense for how long or deeply to inhale, how long to hold it, how long to exhale. I had to put all my mental focus toward breathing. It was really weird. My ability to breathe normally was back within a month or so. @DROPTHENUKES
I was in a short 3 day coma after an accident when I was 11. I remember being surprised, because my body was too big. I had already begun puberty and had lost 2 and half years or so of my memory. It was all so confusing. 2 or so years later most of the pieces suddenly fell together and I could remember almost everything from those missing years. @Cbearington
My neighbors’ kid was in a bad accident and was put in a medically induced coma. The doctors said that he might be able to hear what people said to him, so talk to him, play his favorite music, sports, etc. He liked Elvis, so they played his CDs almost non-stop. When he finally awoke from the coma he thought he was Elvis. It took a long time for him to accept the truth. Now he works as an Elvis impersonator. @designgoddess

My nephew was in a medically induced coma for over 3 months. During that time, he had lost about 30% of his body weight, as his muscles atrophied. His first remark upon seeing himself for the first time was “Did you forget to feed me?” which was incredibly hard to hear since his family had sat crying at his bedside every moment he was unconscious. @meccadeadly
A guy I dated for a few weeks in high school was in an accident and a nearly 6 month coma. He somehow woke up with a Scottish accent and his family couldn’t figure out where it came from. Finally, they realized that the accent was because his ultra-Scottish grandma was with him a lot as a baby and that’s what his brain latched onto. @ihrie82
My dad had been eating meat his whole life, and then he went into a coma. He had to learn to talk and walk again and they obviously also had to feed him. When he could finally talk properly, he asked everyone why they were feeding him meat. He literally woke up a vegetarian. @Sexybatman3
I was in a coma for 9 days. I was probably most surprised by how I had to relearn some basic things like how to pee and swallow. @jackie0h_