Forward to the Future ... in coma! - by Rogue Keeper
Rogue Keeper on 20/6/2007 at 13:41
Two weeks old news, still pretty curious :
Quote:
Pole wakes up from 19-year coma(
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6715313.stm)
A Polish man has woken up from a 19-year coma to find the Communist party no longer in power and food no longer rationed, Polish TV reports.
Railway worker Jan Grzebski, 65, fell into a coma after he was hit by a train in 1988.
"Now I see people on the streets with mobile phones and there are so many goods in the shops it makes my head spin," he told Polish television.
He credits his survival to his wife, Gertruda, who cared for him.
Doctors gave him only two or three years to live after the accident.
A comatose patient is in a profound state of unconsciousness which renders them unaware of both self and the world around them, and from which they cannot be roused.
Although those in a coma do not respond to stimuli in a meaningful way, contrary to popular belief they do not always lie quiet and still - in some cases they can move, open their eyes and even talk.
Fall of communists
"It was Gertruda that saved me, and I'll never forget it," Mr Grzebski told news channel TVN24 of his recovery.
Mrs Grzebski is reported to have moved her husband every hour to prevent bed sores.
"I cried a lot, and I prayed a lot," Mrs Grzebski said on Polsat television.
"Those who came to see us kept asking: 'When is he going to die?' But he's not dead."
When Mr Grzebski had his accident Poland was still ruled by its last communist leader, Wojciech Jaruzelski.
"When I went into a coma there was only tea and vinegar in the shops, meat was rationed and huge petrol queues were everywhere," Mr Grzebski said.
The following year's elections ushered in eastern Europe's first post-communist government.
Poland joined the Nato alliance in 1999 and the European Union in 2004.
"What amazes me today is all these people who walk around with their mobile phones and never stop moaning," said Mr Grzebski.
"I've got nothing to complain about."
Now how many former anti-communist dissidents would welcome such a time jump, eh? Or anybody. If they had somebody to care of them in the meantime. The future prospects of coma are now revealed! Better than cryogenics! We just have to think about how to slow down natural aging.
But one could easily get cranked in the head from seeing how the world has changed in 19 years. Cell phones! Who would have guessed in '88? :eek:
Still it'll look good in television.
Genre interest influence :
Sci-Fi +, Comedy +, Social Drama +, Political thrillers -
van HellSing on 20/6/2007 at 14:52
Quote Posted by BR796164
Cell phones! Who would have guessed in '88? :eek:
No guessing needed:
Quote Posted by wikipedia
The first commercial cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979. Fully automatic cellular networks were first introduced in the early to mid 1980s (the 1G generation) with the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in 1981.
Rogue Keeper on 20/6/2007 at 15:00
Those weren't for commoners. Twice not for commoners in east block.
TheOutrider on 20/6/2007 at 17:44
Similarly, (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Krikalev) this guy was sent up to the Mir space station from the Soviet Union and didn't return to earth until after its collapse. Watching events like that from the detachedness of up there must've been insane, moreso because it was the place he'd lived in.
Mr.Duck on 22/6/2007 at 04:21
Reminds me of (
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0301357/) this movie.
Though it seems our dear Polish fellow's taking the XXIst century quite well, save for everyone having mobiles.
Crazy world.
Mr.Duck on 22/6/2007 at 21:00
Ooooh....Polish cinema :cool:
Sounds interesting.
Marecki on 23/6/2007 at 17:56
For the record, this has turned out to be a hoax - after the man in question has accidentally admitted he does know what a mobile phone is, the "investigation" (doesn't reallty deserve such a serious name, they just asked people) that followed was revealed that he was not in fact in coma - unable to speak, but conscious the whole time.
MrDuck: You'd better believe it! :) Also, I've heard opinions that Seksmisja is not as hermetic as many other Eastern Block comedies, meaning the Westerners sill can have some laughs at it.
demagogue on 23/6/2007 at 20:11
I loved that movie when I saw it.
The size of my browser window gave me an unintentionally profound commentary on capitalism when I read the plot summary on the IMDB page (well, not really profound, just funny):
Quote:
East Germany, the year 1989: A young man protests against the regime. His mother watches the police arresting him and suffers a heart attack and falls into a advertisement SHOP GOOD BYE... AMAZON.COM
