Rom Houben uses his touch-screen and assistance of his speech therapist Linda Wouters to communicate during an interview in Belgium. Houben was misdiagnosed for 23 years as being in a coma until a doctor discovered three years ago that his brain was still functioning. Houben was diagnosed as being in a vegetative state following a car crash in 1983.

AP

A student performs an MRI scan. A man who emerged from what doctors thought was a vegetative state says he was fully conscious for 23 years but could not respond because he was paralyzed, his mother said Monday.

AP

A scientist in Germany holds test tubes with HIV infected blood. The number of people worldwide infected with the virus that causes AIDS has remained virtually unchanged for the last two years, United Nations experts said Tuesday.

AP

Monty Vann suffered a stroke after being discharged from the Health Sciences Centre five days after undergoing brain surgery.

CBC

Australian surgeons separated Trishna and Krishna, 2-year-old Bangladeshi twins joined at the top of the head, in a marathon operation that lasted 25 hours.

Getty Images

In this photo taken from the video provided by the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, surgeons and nurses are seen inside the operating room at Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne for the separation surgery of the conjoined twins Krishna and Trishna Monday, Nov. 16, 2009 in Melbourne, Australia. The Australian doctors successfully concluded 25 hours of delicate surgery Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009, to separate the twin Bangladeshi girls who had been joined at their heads, sharing blood vessels and brain tissue.

AP Photo/Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne via APTN

Michelle Mack has turned medical thinking upside down. Born with only half a brain, Mack can speak normally, graduated from high school and has an uncanny knack for dates.

CNN

Evan Frustaglio, who died from the swine flu on Monday, Oct. 26, is shown in a family handout photo. A grief-stricken father whose otherwise healthy teenage son died suddenly from the swine flu struggled to make sense of the tragedy Tuesday and urged other parents to keep a close eye on their ill children.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Frustaglio Family

Paul Frustaglio breaks down while talking to the media about the death of his thirteen-year-old son Evan Frustaglio in Toronto, on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009. A grief-stricken father whose otherwise healthy teenage son died suddenly from the swine flu struggled to make sense of the tragedy Tuesday and urged other parents to keep a close eye on their ill children.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Evan Frustaglio, who died from the swine flu on Monday, is shown in a Sept., 2009 family handout photo on the first day of school. A grief-stricken father whose otherwise healthy teenage son died suddenly from the swine flu struggled to make sense of the tragedy Tuesday and urged other parents to keep a close eye on their ill children.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Frustaglio Family

The Will to Live: British parents Emily Ashurst and Pete Vincent expected their baby, Grace, to die when she was taken off life support at 6 weeks old after spending four days in intensive care for group B streptococcus meningitis. But the baby kept breathing on her own and has been released from the hospital, London's Daily Mail reported in June.

SWNS

Cosmetic Surgery Addiction: Alicia Douvall, a 29-year-old British model, said in February that she's lost count of how many plastic surgeries she's had, but that the number is at least 100. She suffers from a mental disorder that has made her obsessed with her looks, always thinking something is flawed. Here she is shown in 2003.

David Westing, Getty Images

Alternative Cancer Cure? In 2006, Connah Broom, of Gronant, Wales, developed a cancer of the nervous system that resulted in 11 tumors. Chemotherapy failed, and his grandparents tried a range of alternative therapies. In February, the Daily Mail reported 10 of the tumors shrunk and may be dead. Doctors cautioned that cancers can go into remission and return.

Barcroft Media / Fame Pictures

Saved By a Power Drill: Nicholas Rossi, 13, was moments from death when he arrived at a rural Australian hospital in May. He needed a hole drilled in his skull to relieve the dangerous swelling, but the hospital lacked such medical equipment. So the doctor used a power drill from a maintenance closet. Here, Nicholas and his parents appear in Melbourne after their close call.

Aaron Francis / Newspix / Rex USA

40-Pound Tumor: Surgeon Heinz R. Zurbruegg discusses the giant tumor removed from a Saudi Arabian woman in April in Berlin, Germany. The woman, 35, traveled to Germany after doctors in Riyadh said they would have to amputate her leg to remove the malignant bone tumor. Doctors reduced the growth with chemotherapy and then removed it in five operations.

Alina Novopashina, EPA

Baby Who Won't Grow: British baby Suraya Brown suffers from a mysterious condition that prevents her from growing, the Mirror reported Jan. 2. At 14 months, she is the size of a newborn, weighing 7 pounds and measuring only 19 inches long. "She has been a real conundrum," one doctor told the newspaper.

Daily Mirror / ZUMA Press

Post-Mortem Sperm Collection: This 21-year-old man died April 5 from injuries he sustained during an argument outside a Texas bar nine days earlier. But Nikolas Colton Evans could have his dream of becoming a father fulfilled in death. His mother received permission from a judge April 7 to have his sperm collected for a possible surrogate pregnancy.

Texas Department of Public Safety via the Austin American Statesman / AP

Teen Sex Change: A German boy who always wanted to be a girl underwent a sex-change operation in January. At 16, Kim Petras -- formerly Tim Petras -- is believed to be the world's youngest female transsexual. She has worked as a model and recorded a CD.

EuroPics / CEN

Amazing Awakening: Mike Connolly, of Vista, Calif., smiles at his wife, Loris, in a California hospital Feb. 16. Connolly spent nearly 100 hours in a coma after suffering a heart stoppage. Incredibly, he woke up just after a decision was made to take him off life support.

Bill Wechter, North County Times

Vision Restored: Beth Trubridge, 87, struggled with partial vision for more than 70 years but now sees the world clearly, The Herald newspaper in Plymouth, England, reported Feb. 2. She lost her vision in her right eye as a teen but now has 80 percent of it back after doctors treated her for a parasitic infection and removed deep-rooted cataracts.

Guy Channing, The Herald