July 3, HBO) comes a moment when you desperately will a man named Tom to nod his head. So heartbreaking is his story and those of three other patients documented here that no matter how excruciatingly difficult it can be to watch this film, you can't help but become attached. There but for the grace of God .
.. Filmmaker Liz Garbus ("The Farm: Angola, USA" garnered two Emmys and earned her an Oscar nomination) uses two high-profile media stories the "spectacle" of Terri Schiavo as well as the case of Terry Wallis who "awoke" after 19 years as her jumping-off points.
And her film tackles all sorts of questions: Is it possible to emerge from a comatose state? How does one decide, in the wake of brutally stark language from doctors, whether it's time to give up hope? "Coma" focuses on one emotional year in the lives of four people being treated at the Center for Head Injuries at the JFK Medical Center in Edison, N.
J. Car accidents, a fall from a balcony and an assault have put two college students, a restaurant worker and a sales manager there. What follows is a medical mystery story as much as a tragic family drama; hope followed by horror followed by, you're praying, something positive.
"It's a very private, independent trauma," says one mother, trying to explain what she's going through. Coming at the very end is one of the most unsettling parts of the film: the statistic that a traumatic brain injury occurs every 15 seconds in the United States. For those looking for a one-time complement to the pleasing July 3, HBO) comes a moment when you desperately will a man named Tom to nod his head.
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