Coma: The Journey Back

This powerful Blue Ribbon award-winner at the 1988 American Film and Video Festival examines the emotional fallout for the families and victims of coma. As coma survivor Debbie Price's mother describes it, coma--often the result of severe head injury--leaves the survivor with "a mosaic of disabilities". Memory, locomotory skills, ability to reason, power of speech, awareness of reality, all of these functions and more can be impaired, making the coma survivor's life a hallucinatory nightmare. Coma: The Journey Back focuses on two women who were in tragic teenage accidents. Debbie Price was a passenger in a drinking and driving accident that left her in a coma for three months. Today, undergoing steady treatment, and with the dedication of her mother, Debbie is striving toward some sort of independence. For Debbie, the act of buying laundry soap from a vending machine is a complex task, requiring total concentration and supreme effort. She has difficulty remembering words like "salt" and "pepper". But she still has a sense of humor: when her mother explains to her that the word she's searching for is "marriage", not "I want a man," they both have a good laugh. The other survivor is Patty Hogan, who has miraculously--after spending 5 1/2 months in a coma--lost only the power of speech; her mind remains crystal clear. Since Patty was recently laid off, due to budget cuts, her therapist is worried that she will lose her incredible drive and determination if she can't be a part of the work force. The film ends with a gut-punch that will hopefully hit kids hard, as Debbie gropes for the words to tell people that "drinking and driving" is "stupid." Highly recommended. (Available from: Varied Directions, 69 Elm St., Camden, ME 04843; 1-800-888-5236.)