A woman from the United Arab Emirates, UAE, who went into a coma after she was injured in an accident in 1991 has woken up from the 27-year-long coma.
Munira Abdulla was 32 when she was involved in an accident. She was in a car driven by her brother-in-law after she picked up her son from school.
During the short journey, the car she was travelling in collided with a bus. Omar Webair, who was then just four years old, was sitting in the back of the vehicle with his mother but he was unscathed because his mother cradled him in her arms moments before the accident.
Munira suffered a severe brain injury which left her in a coma and she was admitted in the hospital.
Fortunately, she has made a seemingly miraculous recovery after she regained consciousness last year in a German hospital.
In a recent interview with the UAE-based newspaper, The National, Munira’s son, Omar, opened up about the accident and about his mother’s progress following years of treatment.
Omar told the newspaper on Monday: “I never gave up on her because I always had a feeling that one day she would wake up.”
He added: “The reason I shared her story is to tell people not to lose hope on their loved ones; don’t consider them dead when they are in such a state.
“My mother was sitting with me in the back seat. When she saw the crash coming, she hugged me to protect me from the blow.”
Omar told of how his mother was left untreated for hours after the accident.
She was eventually taken to hospital and later transferred to London. There, she was declared to be in a vegetative state but able to sense pain, The National reports.
She was then returned to Al Ain, a city in the UAE on the border with Oman where she lived, and moved to various medical facilities according to insurance requirements.
She remained there for a few years, fed through a tube and kept alive. She underwent physiotherapy to ensure her muscles would not weaken through lack of movement.
In 2017, the family was offered a grant by the Crown Prince Court, a government body in Abu Dhabi, for Ms Abdulla to be transferred to Germany.
There, she underwent a number of surgeries to correct her severely shortened arm and leg muscles, and she was given medication to improve her state, including her wakefulness.
A year later, Omar was involved in an argument in his mother’s hospital room, which seemed to prompt his mother to stir, BBC reports.
“There was a misunderstanding in the hospital room and she sensed I was at risk, which caused her a shock,” Omar said.
“She was making strange sounds and I kept calling the doctors to examine her, they said everything was normal.
“Then, three days later, I woke up to the sound of someone calling my 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.”
She became more responsive, and can now feel pain and have some conversations. Munira is also now able to have conversations with her family
She has returned to Abu Dhabi, where she is undergoing physiotherapy and further rehabilitation.
