Medicine: Record Coma

Injured in a factory accident in 1943, Engineer Robert Steger survived an operation for removal of a blood clot from his brain, but never regained consciousness. In Cincinnati's Bethesda Hospital, he was fed through a tube, gained weight, and seemed not to age. Last week, after what appeared to be the longest coma in medical history, Steger, 52, died from "deterioration caused by inactivity."

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