Moe Hunter, 39, baffled doctors by waking from a coma with newfound artistic talents he never had before and has now released a book featuring his remarkable creations
A dad who woke up from a coma with an amazing new talent for art has drawn pictures of what he saw “on the other side”.
Moe Hunter, 39, came out of a month-long coma with creative abilities he never had before. Despite being “rubbish at art at school.” Moe discovered he had a knack for drawing, painting and model building. He went from working at Burger King to using his new skills as a professional carpenter and model maker. People are always curious about what he saw while in his coma. Although doctors say the comatose brain doesn’t show signs of normal sleep-cycle which allows for dreaming, many people who recover from comas report having visions. Moe was no exception and has shared insights into the strange visions he had. He’s documented his experience in a book and released artwork depicting the ‘places he went to’ in his coma.
Moe, from Hereford, said: “I’ve had so many people who read my story last year wanting to know more about what I saw in the coma. Everything I saw, felt, and heard is burnt into my mind and I can remember it like it was yesterday. “I told my neurologist when I woke up from the coma and he stared at for around three minutes. He then said ‘hmm that’s interesting, because it’s highly unlikely to dream in a coma Moe.’ I told him that’s what I had seen and he said it might have been the brain trying to overcome the severe trauma from the Tuberculosis and meningitis.
“I decided to write a book about my experience and the things I saw and I’ve now recently painted them after being encouraged by my wife and family. I was too afraid to at first as I still get nightmares about some of them but it’s not very often you get an insight into what it’s like being in a coma.”
Moe said he experienced terrifying shadowy figures by a canal, giant Russian nesting dolls and an Egyptian looking dog, which ‘kept him safe’. He added: “I remember everything so vividly, at first I heard sirens and going in and out of consciousness, and then I ended up in a garden.
“I heard dog footsteps coming toward me through the mist and a black Egyptian looking hound walked up to me but it gave me a sense of safety. That’s when I looked around and there was a house which was the darkest black you’d ever see. There was a huge entity black which was in the shape of a giant Russian nesting doll.
“This was just one of the many extraordinary and mind-blowing experiences I had. There was another place I went to in the coma which still seriously haunts me till this day, I was standing next to an old looking canal, Victorian era. There was a small brick bridge there was black shadowy figures standing on this small bridge with bright, warm lights emitting from their eyes.
“I remember walking to the edge of the canal near the water and that’s when I heard something moving toward me coming from under the bridge in the water. It was a figure, a hooded figure, but it just seemed like it was a floating black robe and it stopped in front of me. I got on and when I was on I looked at these things on the bridge and a voice echoed through me ‘do not gaze upon those on the bridge.’
“Then towards the end of the coma I was sat in a hole that was in a wall of grass behind me was a hole, that led back to the world of the living. In front was another world with huge mountains and thick leafed trees, rolling green hills with green like iv never seen in the waking life.
“Blue skies and puffy clouds and behind me outside the hole my mom and little brother were reaching inside to grab me telling me to come back to life. Two of my pictures depict both side of the walls and I called this place ‘the place between two sides’. These experiences changed my life completely.”
In 2004, Moe was hit by a rare form of bacterial meningitis and tuberculosis in his brain, leaving him fighting for his life. He fell into a coma as doctors at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital performed crucial surgery to drain fluid from his brain. Moe, a married father of one, has also sold some of his artwork and continues to work as a self-employed carpenter. He said medical experts were baffled by the strange phenomenon until his neurologist told him: “Just enjoy it.”
Moe admitted: “I really wasn’t creative before in the slightest, in fact people used to laugh at my drawings. I was more interested in going out, football and computer games. Even to this day some of my family can’t believe it, they’re still completely shocked.
“It’s insane but when I spoke to the neurologist he just said ‘enjoy it’ and said there’s so much about the brain they still can’t decipher and this is just a phenomenon. I look at all of my stuff now and I’m like ‘never in a trillion years could I do this stuff’. I have no idea how it happened.” Nobody has really given a medical explanation for it. I just know comas can do crazy things to a human brain.” Moe has finished writing a screenplay about his own experience and hopes it will be picked up by TV bosses. His book ‘A Numb Conversation & The Place Between Two Sides’ is available on Amazon for £5.99.
