Comatose Woman Wakes, Learns It's the 21st Century

Munira Abdulla had been unresponsive since 1991
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 23, 2019 10:20 AM CDT
'Joy' as Mom Wakes From 27-Year Coma
Stock photo.   (Getty Images/gorodenkoff)

Until June 2018, Munira Abdulla had last been conscious when mobile phones were just starting to be widely sold. Had they then been readily available, someone might have been able to call for help. Instead, Abdulla waited for hours for help to arrive after the car she was in collided with a school bus in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, in 1991. Though the 4-year-old son she reportedly shielded from impact walked away with only a bruise, Abdulla, 32, suffered a serious brain injury and spent the next 27 years minimally conscious but completely unresponsive, reports the National. Then she opened her eyes in a German hospital room in the year 2018. It was a moment long anticipated by Omar Webair, now that same age as his mother at the time of the crash. "I was flying with joy," he says. "I always had a feeling that one day she will wake up."

Abdulla's "seemingly miraculous" recovery came after her family received a grant in April 2017 to cover medication to aid wakefulness and surgeries to treat deteriorated limb muscles at Germany's Schoen Clinic, per the BBC. In the final week of her stay, Abdulla—who'd previously been moved from hospital to hospital for insurance reasons—seemed to stir as her son got into an argument at her bedside. "Three days later, I woke up to the sound of someone calling my name. It was her," Webair says. Now receiving treatment in Abu Dhabi, "Abdulla was able to answer questions, albeit with difficulty, and recited verses from the [Koran]" when visited, per the National. Webair therefore urges others "not to lose hope on their loved ones," adding: "All those years, the doctors told me she was a hopeless case." (A six-week coma also had a happy ending.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X