Reawakening
Interactive images are used to stimulate a patient at coma rehabilitation clinic Istituto Sant'Anna. In the past 18 years, the southern Italian institute has helped 1,200 people emerge from comas. It is a rare world class medical centre in one of Europe's poorest regions.
Quality of health care in Calabria is among the worst in Italy; infant mortality is the highest in the country. More patients from Calabria than from any other region seek treatment elsewhere, according to the health ministry.
A coma patient lies in a bed at Sant'Anna hospital.
A coma patient has his brain parameters checked to understand when he is ready to be stimulated.
A patient is manually stimulated.
A patient embraces his mother whom he now recognizes. He was in a coma for four and half years following a motorbike accident and awakened a few months ago.
A robot is attached to a patient's arm as part of a rehabilitation programme.
Interactive images are used to stimulate patients at Sant'Anna hospital.
A doctor studies a patient’s walking after applying remote sensors to his body.
Giovannina Caprara, a coma patient, sits in a wheelchair at her home while her husband stokes the fire.
Doctors remotely control a patient.
