The Value of Life.

How much do you value your life? For years I have never been able to answer this question, until I read the story of one Rom Huoubens, and then it all became abundantly clear, not enough.

Imagine if you will, for a moment, if you were a 23 year engineering student with a bright future. Your active, a martial arts enthusiast, got your whole life to look forward to. Then in a car tragic accident you are entombed in a paralysed body, where you can’t move, talk or communicate in anyway with the outside world.

And then finally, imagine being misdiagnosed as being in a coma, and being treated as such for 23 years. No efforts to help you communicate with anyone, no therapy to help you regain any movement; your a vegetable why bother, you are not aware of your surrounds.

This is exactly what happened to Rom Huoubens. 23 years he sat in a hospital bed as his loved ones visited, discussed his quality of life, possibly debated on whether they should pull the plug. For 23 agonising years he was unable to say nothing. Until now. Kinda of makes you appreciate the value of life.

Obviously this was not his choice, who knows maybe if he had the choice he would have had his family pull the plug 22 years ago. But it’s funny how going without something for so long can change your perspective.

"I shall never forget the day when they discovered what was truly wrong with me – it was my second birth. All that time I just literally dreamed of a better life. Frustration is too small a word to describe what I felt."

After 23 years lying in a bed unable to do anything but watch his life pass by, Rom was re-diagnosed and treated to the point where he was able to communicate through the use of his finger. 23 years of silence, for the use of a finger, and what a gift that was to him.

When you read something like this it really makes you question all the things in life you have ever waited for. I waited 13 years to make an Australia team. I waited 3 years to graduate from university. Last week I waited 8 hours for my shift at work to finish. I did all of this, whilst living a perfectly health life. And boy did I bitch and moan about it.

Kinda of makes me feel ashamed and embarrassed. 23 years, for a finger. Makes all my worries seem to pail in comparison. What have I really sacrificed in life? What could I ever really sacrifice to compare to that? If I was offered anything in life for 23years worth of silence in a vegetative state I could and would never do it. Could you do it for just a finger?

It seems in this day and age that we all complain too much. We are always so concerned on what we don’t have, rather than focusing on what we do. By the time we come to our senses it’s too late. I know I for one have been guilty of it, and I dare say that none of you reading this now could plead innocence.

So when you have to wait 5minutes in line for a coffee, 9months for a baby or even 3 years for a degree remember the man who waited 23 years to live. Ask yourself how much do you value your life and how much are you willing to sacrifice for it. I'm sure the answer will be, not enough.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/6632518/Conscious-man-in-coma-for-23-years.html