Jan Grzebski, a railway worker who fell into a coma in communist Poland, has woken up in a wholly new world.

Report by Krysia Kołosowska

Jan Grzebski has surprised everyone. After 19 years in a coma, he regained consciousness and is fast learning to speak, sit and move again.

In 1988, this 65 year old railway man suffered an accident at work and lost consciousness. In addition, he was diagnosed with brain tumor. Doctors’ gave him little chance to live. His wife did not give up. She and the whole family gave him great love and care.

A month ago, Jan Grzebski began rehabilitation and has since progressed fast, says rehabilitaion specialist Wojciech Pstragowski.

'He can practically stand on his own and can walk with the help of others. Considering the short period of rehabilitation, we are astonished at his impressive progress. He does not fit into any medical statistics.'

It may take Jan Grzebski longer, perhaps, to adjust to the new reality around him. He remembers shortages of goods in shops, shelves filled only with vinegar and the rationing of food as the communist system was crumbling down a year before Poland switched to democracy and market economy in 1989.

Sociologist Ireneusz Krzeminski says it must be a shock to discover a completely new market economy reality, with shops bursting at the seams with all sorts of goods and people around him using mobile phones and the internet.

'He is now in a very difficult situation. I can imagine how many journalists, television crews and ordinary people would be interested to talk to him. It is a special case, not the first time when life is bigger than fiction. There have been many good films about such people. It’s really difficult to imagine how he will perceive the world now, when everything is different. He also is different. What is most interesting for me as a sociologist is a kind of test how he will perceive and evaluate the changes around him.'

Jan Grzebski has already ventured out and was surprised at the amount of goods in shops and even the fact that shops were open on Sundays, something that Poles accept as a normal thing.

'May be he will need a special process of adaptation. But it is something like a novel, a special situation. In some sense a lot of people would like to experience something like that: you are born again in a completely new world. That’s really interesting, a subject for writers, film makers.'

Jan Grzebski’s wife, Gertruda, who nursed her husband for the past 19 years, is now helping him to discover and adjust to the new world, like after a travel in a time capsule.