Waking from a coma to reunite with a supposed boyfriend might sound like a romantic comedy, but for writer Brooke Knisley, it became a terrifying ordeal. In 2015, Brooke suffered a severe brain injury after falling over 20 feet from a tree. She spent 10 days in a coma and woke up to find a man by her bedside claiming to be her boyfriend.
The Confusing Beginning
Brooke, from the US, recounted her story on The Sex That Changed My Life podcast. The man told her, "I've been telling the doctors and everyone that you're my girlfriend, is that OK?" Still disoriented, Brooke found him vaguely familiar but wasn't sure. When she asked for clarification, he said, "Well, we were never together together, but we are. So I'm just telling everyone, you're my girlfriend now." Despite feeling uneasy, she was too confused to object.
Strange Behavior During Recovery
Over the following weeks, the man visited regularly, often taking advantage of her memory issues. He claimed he had visited when he hadn't. While Brooke tried to recover with logic puzzles and reading, he urged her to focus on shaving and removing body hair. Brooke, who naturally has more body hair than most women, was taken to salons for waxing, which left her face swollen and blotchy due to sensitive skin. Her double vision made it hard to see the results.
The man insisted they were in a relationship, but Brooke felt something was off. She noted, "Even the way he was telling me about the clipped version of our interactions... it did corroborate with what he was saying, that we had been like kind of involved." However, there was little physical affection, which she attributed to her own lack of affection in past relationships.
The Turning Point
Brooke's closest friend was abroad during the accident and was surprised to learn of this new man. After hearing about his focus on appearance over mental recovery, the friend suggested, "Maybe there's something he doesn't want you to remember." When Brooke repeated this to the man, he reacted angrily, asking why she would say he didn't care about her mind getting better.
When her friend returned and saw the man, she recognized him as someone who had sexually assaulted her a year earlier on campus. Brooke then realized why his face seemed familiar. She confronted him, saying, "I remember this happened. Is that why you're here?" After the argument, he broke up with her, which delighted her mother.
Disturbing Revelation
Brooke's mother then revealed that two days into her coma, the man had suggested pulling the plug if things didn't look good. Even after Brooke told him never to contact her again, he occasionally called or emailed, always asking if her friend planned to press charges for the assault. His exact motive for faking the relationship remains unclear.
