Frank's story
Frank is 56 years old, married and proud father of two beautiful daughters, owns a glazier and bon vivant. When he was on a trip with his cycling club in early April 2016, he was hit by a drunk driver who ended up on the wrong side of the road. Frank breaks his leg, an ankle, 8 ribs and his jaw. He has many injuries to his body, has a collapsed lung and is immediately in a coma. His wife and daughters are told that it looks serious, but that nothing can be said about possible recovery, except that it could take a long time.
Frank is operated on immediately, has a constant fever and does not regain consciousness. He is in an unresponsive state. The treating physicians always indicate that it is still too early to draw conclusions. After 14 days, he can go to a 'normal' hospital ward, where there appears to be little knowledge about patients with loss of consciousness/coma.
The family would like active treatment to get him conscious, but cannot find a place in the Netherlands where that happens. Eventually, more than 7 weeks later, he goes to Belgium, where adults with loss of consciousness are actively treated in a rehabilitation center. Unfortunately, Frank has a high fever and respiratory infections a number of times, which means that the program is interrupted a few times for hospitalization. At the last hospitalization, the doctors indicate that there is little they can do for him next time. Frank becomes resistant to antibiotics and there is a good chance that he will die from the infections and fever. The family decides to bring Frank home and converts his office into a 'sick room'.
After a stay of 7 weeks and 2 days in Belgium, Frank goes home, in poor condition, but once home, Frank sometimes seems to show minimal signs of consciousness. However, he can only show it occasionally and the condition remains poor. After a new assessment by employees of the research group No one between two stools, the conclusion is that there is virtually no chance that consciousness will return. In consultation with the general practitioner, it is eventually decided to discontinue all treatments, including the administration of nutrition and fluids. Before that can be used, Frank's condition deteriorates considerably and within 2 days he dies from the consequences of a serious respiratory infection, 6 months and 10 days after the fatal accident.