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A woman who lived in a coma for 42 years, meticulously cared for by her family, died Wednesday in her home in Miami Gardens, Fla., the Miami Herald reported.

Edwarda O’Bara was a 16-year-old high school student in 1970 when she became sick from her diabetes medication and slipped into a diabetic coma.
According to the Herald, just before she lost consciousness, Edwarda asked her mother, Kaye O’Bara, to never leave her side, and her family never did.
Edwarda’s father, Joe O’Bara, and Kaye took care of their daughter — reading to her, playing her music, making sure she was turned every two hours, bathed, given insulin and given nourishment through a feeding tube — until their deaths in 1976 and 2008, respectively. After that, Edwarda’s sister Colleen O’Bara took over.

The family’s story inspired the 2001 book, "A Promise Is A Promise: An Almost Unbelievable Story of a Mother’s Unconditional Love and What It Can Teach Us" and a song called "My Blessed Child," and it prompted people from around the world to travel to her Florida home.
"She taught me so much, and I’m talking about now, after she was in the coma," Colleen O’Bara told the Herald. "She taught me so much about unconditional love that I couldn’t say I had it before. She taught me about patience that I didn’t have before."

In an announcement of Edwarda's death posted Thursday on a website dedicated to her, Colleen O'Bara wrote: "Yesterday while taking care of Edwarda I noticed her looking directly at me and gave me the biggest smile I had ever seen. She then closed her eyes and joined my Mom in Heaven."

Edwarda O’Bara was 59. A memorial is scheduled for Tuesday.

k.fako:
I think everyone should have a Living Will. It gives instructions on how you want to die or not die if you are in a lengthy coma or in a vegetative condition. Many people don't wish to inconvenience anyone for 40 years as in this woman's care nor even for 40 days if it is determined they will never recover from a vegetative condition and although she was not brain dead, she was in a vegetative condition.

This girl's family took care of her in a loving manner, those were their wishes, however, she might have wished they had just let her die a natural death rather than allowing her to lie in bed with a feeding inserted in her abdomin through which liquid nutrients flowed into her for 40 years.

slimyem: 42 years??
Wow!!
The kinda hope this family had eh...
Na wa!!
IMO though,she died in 1970 at 16!!!

afam4eva: Can we have a picture of her pre-coma and just before she died.

If this happened in Nigeria, they would have given up on her long long time ago.

afam4eva:
If this happened in Nigeria, they would have given up on her long long time ago.

mama-gee:
Wow!!!

What a weird story, I wonder how it felt to just be like that for 42 years

afam4eva: Can we have a picture of her pre-coma and just before she died.

If this happened in Nigeria, they would have given up on her long long time ago.

HQ: Sleeping Beauty.

This sort of reminds me of a similar case in Nigeria - a Man this time though(and the danger was averted).

Now, I didn't mention anyone's name.

Dextra: This story brought tears to my eyes. So much love and commitment. Do you know what caring for this woman will have cost the family? not in terms of finance but physically, they basically wouldn't have a life of their own. I will like to meet the sister and ask her how she did it because I know from experience it is not easy caring for unconscious patients.
It also made me think of all those patients who go into irreversible brain damage after cardiac arrest, how we ask the families to give permission to pull them off the ventilator (life support), although I always wish they'll wake up before the ventilator is switched off but they never did. This is a story of LOVE. I knew how hectic it was for me when I took care of a patient with brain cancer, how impatient I grew sometimes though I knew it wasn't her fault that she had to scream at the top of her voice in the middle of the night (every night and day) and keep the neighbours awake. When she finally passed on, I was relieved, not from caring for her but from the fact that she won't feel the pains anymore. Having to care for 42 years! This is the epitome of Care! I pray God bless me with such.

xcalzy: Lovely comment. Love ur signature too. D "I live for today ONLY". God bless! :-)