A Saudi prince who has been in a coma for 15 years has performed the unexpected feat of lifting his hand. You can watch the footage here:
Prince Al-Waleed bin Khalid Al-Saud has been in a coma since 2005, when he suffered a brain haemorrhage in a car crash while studying at a military college.
He has needed a ventilator since the accident 15 years ago, and last made a recorded physical movement five years ago.
The footage of the prince lifting his hand in his hospital bed has now been viewed nearly 200,000 times on Twitter.
In the clip, the prince can be seen lifting his fingers, and as a woman asks ‘one more, one more, higher, higher’, the royal can be seen lifting his whole hand off the bed momentarily.
In 2018, a man in China woke up from a coma after being cared for by his wife for five years.
Li Zhihua, from Xiangyang in Hubei Province, China, sustained serious brain injuries after reportedly being knocked off his scooter by a motorbike in 2013.
His wife, Zhang Guihuan, subsequently spent almost 2,000 days as his sole carer, sleeping for only a few hours a day between cleaning, feeding and talking to her husband.
During this period, the strain caused Zhang to lose 10kgs, but against all odds, Li regained consciousness – and his first words were: “Wife, I love you.”
Doctors originally told Zhang her husband may spend the rest of his days in a vegetative state.
However, the she refused to accept this prognosis and spent every day reading to him and playing his favourite songs.
According to Chinese news outlet Pear, Dr Wan Qing’an said: “These things were very helpful to stimulate his nervous system.
“When he was taken to the hospital, he was in a vegetative state. He could not respond to anything.”
Head nurse, Xia Li, said: “[Zhang] taught her partner many movements and patiently demonstrated them to him without any complaint.”
Indeed, after years of tending to her husband’s every need, Zhang plans to continue being utterly devoted to her husband for the rest of his life.
She said: “I have never thought about giving up. As long as he is alive, I will keep serving him.”
