News
Change Region...

Discovery Press Web United Kingdom

Discovery Home & Health

Choose Network...

The Real Sleeping Beauty

NETWORK PREMIERE ONE-OFF Thursday 21st June, 9.00pm

Image 1 / 6

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. This one-off special 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'. The film explores how Sarah's brain rewired itself and how there is much more going on in the brains of coma victims than anyone ever thought possible.