《中英對照讀新聞》Italian coma victim says heard everything義大利昏迷病患說他聽見所有事情

◎張沛元

An Italian man who spent two years supposedly unconscious in a deep coma, written off by doctors as nearly-dead, awoke saying he heard and understood everything happening around him during the long ordeal, his family said.

一名過去兩年來被推測陷入深度昏迷而失去意識，被醫生視為半死而遭放棄的義大利男子在甦醒後表示，他在這段漫長的折磨期間聽見與了解週遭所發生的一切事情，他的家人說。

Salvatore Crisafulli, a father of four, is describing his case as a "miracle" which proves that lost causes are anything but hopeless.

薩瓦多•克瑞沙富利，4個孩子的父親，形容他的案例是「奇蹟」，證明了就算會失敗，也絕不能放棄希望。

"The doctors said that I wasn't conscious, but I understood everything and I cried in desperation," Crisafulli was quoted as saying in Italian media last Wednesday.

「醫生說我沒有意識，但我了解一切事情，我在絕望中哭泣，」義大利媒體上週三引述克瑞沙富利的話說。

He emerged from the coma, caused by a 2003 road accident, three months ago but only began speaking recently. His first word was "Mamma", his mother told the press.

2003年一場道路事故導致昏迷的他，3個月前自昏迷中甦醒，但直到最近才開始講話。他講的第一個字是「媽媽」，他的母親告訴媒體。

新聞辭典

unconscious：形容詞，無意識的；未察覺的；無意的。名詞為unconsciousness。例句：She was completely unconscious of her fault.（她完全沒有發現自己錯了）。

write off：片語，勾銷；迅速流利地寫出；發信（訂貨或索取贈品）；把…看做不存在，放棄。例句：The huge amount of debt may be written off for some specific reasons.（那筆巨大債務也許可以因為某些特定原因而被勾銷）。

lost cause：片語，敗局已定的事業；注定失敗的鬥爭或主張。例句：Anti-war activists believe that Iraq War was a lost cause.（反戰倡議人士相信，伊拉克戰爭注定要失敗）。

anything but：片語，單單除了…之外；根本不，絕不。例句：Mark is anything but clever.（馬克一點也不聰明）。