You may have heard of the story of the man in a coma for 23 years who was recently identified as being conscious but unable to communicate all along. A wonderful story. And a great one for the media, with fallible scientists, mild scaring (it could happen to you), and a some brave tenacious heros.

A few days down the line though and as more details come to light the story doesn’t look so clear cut. It looks like Rom Houben’s words are being read by what is know as “facilitated communication“, a questionable technique, discredited as being about as reliable as an ouija board. There are more details in this story on Wired. This isn’t to say that Houben is not conscious but rather the messages that are appearing in the media that have been attributed to him are most likely not his.

I will be interested to see how many other media outlets pick up this part of the story.