Jan Grzebski
Encyclopedia
Jan Grzebski was a Polish
railroad worker who fell into a coma
in 1988 and woke up in 2007. Although widely reported as a delayed effect of being hit in the head by a train's hinged car side, the coma was actually the result of a 5-centimeter brain tumor. Over time, Grzebski's aging caused the tumor to shrink enough to relieve pressure on his brain stem, and he eventually regained full consciousness. Grzebski began to wake from his coma in 2006. Doctors had not expected Grzebski to survive, let alone emerge from the coma. He credited his survival to his wife, Gertruda Grzebska, who cared and prayed for him. Grzebski was a father of four at the time of the accident. While in a coma he gained eleven grandchildren. In an interview on 1 June 2007, with the Polish news channel TVN 24
, wheelchair
-bound Grzebski described his recollections of the communist system's economic collapse.
"When my family spoke to me, I could actually hear them but I could not talk back. I could not send them a signal to tell them that I was still alive".
He was featured in the Ripley's Believe It or Not!
comic strip for 27 August 2007.
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
railroad worker who fell into a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
in 1988 and woke up in 2007. Although widely reported as a delayed effect of being hit in the head by a train's hinged car side, the coma was actually the result of a 5-centimeter brain tumor. Over time, Grzebski's aging caused the tumor to shrink enough to relieve pressure on his brain stem, and he eventually regained full consciousness. Grzebski began to wake from his coma in 2006. Doctors had not expected Grzebski to survive, let alone emerge from the coma. He credited his survival to his wife, Gertruda Grzebska, who cared and prayed for him. Grzebski was a father of four at the time of the accident. While in a coma he gained eleven grandchildren. In an interview on 1 June 2007, with the Polish news channel TVN 24
TVN 24
TVN24 is Poland's first 24-hour news channel, launched on 9 August 2001. Being a part of the TVN Network, TVN24 is owned by ITI Group. It gained broader popularity after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the USA, which was the first major incident to be covered by TVN24...
, wheelchair
Wheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...
-bound Grzebski described his recollections of the communist system's economic collapse.
"When my family spoke to me, I could actually hear them but I could not talk back. I could not send them a signal to tell them that I was still alive".
He was featured in the Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Ripley's Believe It or Not! is a franchise, founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims...
comic strip for 27 August 2007.