A Pole who spent 19 years in a coma has woken up and will now have to adapt to a country where the communists are no longer in power, a television station announced Friday.
Railwayman Jan Grzebski fell into a coma after he was hit by a train in 1988, the private channel Polsat said.
In an interview, Grzebski said that he owed his survival to his wife, Gertruda.
"She's the one who always took care of me. She saved my life," he said.
Grzebski was a father of four at the time of the accident. He is now making the acquaintance of 11 grandchildren.
Doctors had not expected Grzebski to survive, let alone emerge from the coma.
"I cried a lot, and I prayed a lot. Those who came to see us kept asking: 'When is he going to die?' But he's not dead," said Getruda.
Poland's communist regime was still clinging onto power when Grzebski had his accident, only losing its grip the following year, in 1989.
On the brash neon-lit streets of new European Union member Poland, the period seems a distant memory.
"What amazes me today is all these people who walk around with their mobile phones and never stop moaning. I've got nothing to complain about," said Grzebski.
