Suddenly Mother: After five years in a coma, Carola meets her daughter for the first time

Carola Thimm was four months pregnant when a blood vessel burst in her head, causing her to collapse from one moment to the next. With several surgeries physicians could save their lives, but had to put them into an artificial coma. Only five years later, the young woman was to find her way back to life.

In fact, Carola opened her eyes a few weeks later - but she really was not awake from the coma. Soon there was talk of a coma, and it was not clear if she would ever wake up again.

In a wheelchair with support: So Carola Thimm spent many years of her wake-up comforter.

Coma birth by caesarean section: delivery without maternal love

In the 31st week of pregnancy, contractions begin. Carola is transferred to a university hospital, her daughter delivered by caesarean section. Carola's husband Michael gives her a name: Marie. He also takes a picture of how the newborn baby cuddles up to his mom - and looks away with empty eyes, without registering what has just happened.

Even the birth of her daughter Carola can not bring back to life. She remains in a coma, is relocated several times in the following years and finally sent to a nursing home at the age of 39. Her family does not give up hope and visits her every day. Even little Marie climbs on her mother's bed again and again - but she can not wake her up.

Sign of life after half a decade

Five years later, a miracle suddenly happens: After an examination, a doctor wants to try to re-dose Carola's medication and to completely replace it. Almost unnoticeably, Carola begins to wake up from the coma: her blank look fixes the faces of her visitors more and more often. She manages to take her own steps with the help of the caretakers. And one day, the former instructor tries to use her hand to give the "okay" sign - a sign of life after all those lost years.

The return to life is slow and difficult: Carola learns to walk and speak again, the memory of her husband Michael and the family returns. Only that this cheerful girl, who visits her often, is her own daughter, she does not understand.

"You are my mom, you must know that!"

Although her sister Brita kept telling her about Marie's caesarean birth, Carola's mind completely blocked that information. She was happy about the visit, without developing mother feelings. Even as Marie desperately "You are my mom, you must know that!" to her, she could not handle this information.

Months later, Carola's recovery is so advanced that she can see how much her life has changed over the past five years. For weeks she works to regain her language. Finally, she manages to make a name for the first time since her wake coma: "Marie."

In addition to the everyday things and moves that Carola had to learn completely new, now came a whole new task: learning to be a mother for a child that was still alien to her. But Marie loved her mother despite all these difficulties. And Carola grew more into this new role every day.

How do you develop maternal feelings for a child that is foreign to you?

A second start into a completely new life

The incredible story of her year-long coma and the first encounters with her daughter Marie Carola Thimm tells in her book "My life without me" (about 20 euros, Patmos Verlag).

Meanwhile, Carola Thimm can master her everyday life independently and without care. She lives in a rented apartment, where Marie has a nursery. The marriage to her husband broke in the long, painful years of waking humor. But the two share custody of their daughter and have a good relationship.

Carola still lacks many memories of her life that she will never fully recover. But such setbacks are secondary to her. That she was able to find her way back to life is a miracle for which she is very grateful.

Her new life as the mother of a wonderful daughter, who has also endured the difficult times at her side, is all that counts - precisely because she was not allowed to experience the precious first years of her child's life.

Coma - Sto tysięcy jednakowych miast (May 2024).