Woman wakes up from coma after 27 years

AFTER 27 years in a coma, a 57-year-old woman, who suffered brain injury protecting her son during a car crash in the United Arab Emirate (UAE), has woken up.

She woke up when she heard her son arguing in her hospital room

The woman, Munira Abdulla, from the UAE, was involved in a car crash in 1991.

She suffered a brain injury after being hit by a school bus near Al Ain and fell into a coma

She spent 27 years in a vegetative state before showing signs of awareness. Last year, she regained the ability to speak and she can now have conversations.



Following rehabilitation in Germany, she began to make noises as she tried to call out to son Omar after hearing him arguing in her hospital room.

Days later, she uttered his name for the first time in decades, and now she is able to recite prayers and hold conversations with her loved ones.

Omar revealed her miraculous recovery in an interview with The National, describing how he was ‘flying with joy’ when she began speaking again.

He described how the accident occurred when he was four years old and needed to be brought home from kindergarten because there were no buses available.

Ms Abdulla’s brother-in-law drove her to school to collect Omar and the family was driving home, with the mother and Omar in the back seat, when they were hit by the bus.

As the bus hit, Ms Abdulla threw herself around her son to protect him from the impact. While she suffered a severe head injury, he escaped with just a bruise.

Omar described how his mother was left untreated for hours because the family was unable to call for help, before she was transferred to a clinic in London.

There, doctors diagnosed a vegetative state, meaning she was completely unresponsive but able to feel pain.

She was transferred back to the UAE and put on a ventilator and feeding tube to keep her alive, spending the next few decades hooked up to machines.

But in April 2017, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, heard of her case and gave her family a grant for treatment.

Ms. Abdulla was flown to Germany where she underwent surgeries to repair her muscles while being given medication to improve her sleep patterns.

A year later, she began making strange sounds, and within three days she called out to Omar using his name.

“It was her! She was calling my name, I was flying with joy; for years I have dreamt of this moment, and my name was the first word she said,” Omar said.

Now, she is able to call the names of her loved ones, recite prayers and hold conversations with people.

A medical report issued from Mafraq Hospital last month confirmed “she is currently able to communicate with self and surrounding in a very reasonable manner especially in familiar situations.”

However, the report added that she still needed regular physiotherapy to treat issues with her muscles.