A man has recalled the moment he woke up from a six-month coma only to receive the most "heartbreaking" news of his life.
John Pennington, 36, had been tied down in a hospital bed for half a year when he finally awoke in 2015, despite doctors' fears he would "turn into a vegetable".
Upon waking up, John had no memory of how he had fallen into the coma, believing from the teary nurse's reaction that he "must have killed someone".
But the nurse had been crying from relief, as they had not expected him to wake up at all, he later told MEL Magazine.
Sadly, John's relief was shattered when he received the devastating news that proved to be an even greater "shock".
In a later Q&A hosted on Reddit by MEL, John relived the ordeal in greater detail.
He said: "One day in 2015 I woke up thinking it was time to go to work, but for some reason, found myself strapped to a bed in the hospital.
"When I met eyes with the attending nurse and asked if I could use the bathroom, she teared up and ran out of the room – only to come back a few minutes later to apologize and explained that for the past six months I had been in a coma due to a very severe traumatic brain injury.
“The neurologist said if I did eventually wake up, I wouldn’t be able to do much of anything.
"You can read the full story in great detail over at MEL Magazine, and be sure to visit the subreddit r/TBI, a community of support, awareness, and information about traumatic brain injuries."
One user asked John what had surprised him after he woke up, to which he responded that his father's suicide was the "biggest shock".
He continued: "Everything else I carried the attitude that I'll deal with it. Losing my father was the toughest thing.
"Not the car, not my place, not my computer, but my Pops. I still celebrate his birthday and buy him a cake. My fat a** eats it, but I even serve his slice on his plate. My slice on mine."
John explained that there had been "other issues" in his family before he had fallen into the coma, telling Redditors his sister had been battling drug addiction while her father struggled to help her pay rent.
"Thinking about everything he was going through, and being an old man at that time, I can see how the strongest man I ever knew took his own life," he said.
John's sister commented on the thread, explaining that she had been sober for six years and that telling John about their father's passing was "one of the hardest things I've ever had to do."
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