I think this is the coolest story, on many levels. Can you imagine missing out on 19 years of world history? One day you live in a communist country, you fall into a coma, the next thing you know you wake up 19 years later and your country is a market economy… I just can’t imagine what that must feel like.
Hmmm let’s see… what else did he miss in those 19 years? The Berlin wall came down of course, with Germany reuniting. The Soviet Union breaks up. Then there was the U.S. invasion of Panama. The Dalai Lama wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Nelson Mandela is finally freed (and is later elected president of South Africa). Apartheid laws in South Africa are repealed. The Hubble space telescope is launched. The cold war ends. The first Iraq war happens (that one actually being justified). The Warsaw Pact is dissolved. NAFTA comes into effect. The O.J. Simpson story happens. The International Space Station is being built. A new Pope is elected. Mother Teresa dies. The Internet goes from nonexistent to what it is today. Europe adopts the Euro. 9/11 happens. And on and on and on….
Talk about a different world for this guy.
Now, another cool part about this story is his wife – not giving up and taking care of him like that for 19 years? Now that’s true love…