Sleeping Beauty

1 x 60 mins

In 1984, 18 year old Sarah Scantlin was run over by a drunk driver. The severe brain injuries left her in a coma for twenty years. Doctors had to remove the part of her brain that governs speech to save her life. The prognosis was that she would be in a vegetative state for the rest of her life, with feeding tubes to keep her alive.

In 2005, Sarah miraculously woke up in the nursing home where she lay for two decades and began to speak. She asked the nurse for a manicure. No-one has ever been in a coma for that long and regained the power of speech. The film meets Sarah two years after she spoke those first words. Now, she wants to prove once more she can achieve the impossible. Sarah’s goal is independence, to feed herself, and be able to stand and walk unassisted. The film follows her rapid progress and her family’s struggle to finance further intensive rehab for her after already losing everything they had on medical bills. Sarah’s loved ones also come to terms with the guilt, sacrifice, and loss that they suffered over those years that Sarah ‘disappeared’.

Also featured is English woman Shanha Thwaites who fell into a coma after a car accident.  Her doctors told her parents that she would never recover and that they should withdraw life support, but they refused.  Incredibly after 23 days she awoke, beginning a ten year struggle to full recovery.

The film explores what was happening in Sarah’s brain during the time she was in a  vegetative state and what kind of recovery she can expect to make in the future.