He Was in a Vegetative State. Three Days Later, He Opened His Eyes.

By Harsh Singhal · 27 October 2026 · 8 min read

A man who had been unresponsive in an intensive care unit for weeks opened his eyes on the third day after I worked with him using NLP processes. That is what his family reported, and it is the outcome I had told his wife to expect. This article tells the story as it happened, including how close I came to walking away, what I did and did not do, and what this case does and does not mean.

How the call came

I first met Mandeep in 2016–17 at seven-day NLP workshops. We were both participants. Every day, from 9 in the morning to 7 in the evening, a large group of us learned the same few processes and practised them on each other.

We all learned the same things. But my accuracy and creativity were giving faster results, across many people. At one point I ran an advanced NLP process for helping with traumatic memories for six people at the same time, something no one had done before in the workshops I had been attending back to back, each with more than 300 participants. It was an experiment, and we were encouraged to try. The worst case was that it would not work, and I would have to work with each person one by one. But my rapport and calibration must have been spot on, because all six benefited.

Mandeep later told me she had seen me working with those six people. Some time after that, she came to me and asked if I could work with her, because she was not getting satisfactory results anywhere else. I said yes.

Then, on a pleasantly cold night in early 2019, my phone rang. It was Mandeep, and she sounded sad and shaken. “Uncle is in a coma. Please help. He is in your city. Please go.”

The shock of the call was overwhelming. At first, nothing she said made sense to me. I asked her to slow down and tell me everything.

Her uncle had gone into surgery. Afterwards, a clot formed in his brain, and he slipped into a coma. He had been in a vegetative state for weeks. The healthcare institution had given the family a letter: there was no certainty with a coma, he was in a vegetative state, and there was nothing more they could do. She showed me that letter.

Why I almost said no

I was terrified.

I am not a medical professional. I am not a therapist. I have no licence. How could I walk into an ICU and tell the medical team, “Step aside, I will handle this”?

I took some time to think. Then I told her I would go only if she first got written permission from the medical professionals treating him. She did. When she called again, the permission was in place, and his wife would be there with me. “Please go. Please help him. I know only you can, Harsh.”

I agreed, on two conditions. I could not promise anything. And if at any point I felt unsure, I would leave without doing anything. She agreed.

Inside the ICCU

His wife and, I think, his son met me and took me into the intensive critical care unit.

He was heavily tubed. Machines were beeping all around him. Every part of my mind was screaming at me to get out of there. I almost did. I was turning to leave when Mandeep’s voice echoed in my head: “Harsh, please try. If anyone can, you can.”

So I stayed.

What I did

At that time, I knew three NLP processes as well as I knew the back of my hand. I did not know which one would fit, so I used all three, one after another, and repeated them.

NLP depends on calibration: reading the small, unconscious signals a person gives, so you know how the process is landing. Here, there was no conscious communication at all. There were tubes and the noise of machines. His lungs were filling with fluid, so he was not lying flat but held in a bed tilted almost upright. There was no space for me to sit. I stood bent over him, watching him from head to toe, like a hawk, for any clear unconscious signal that could guide the process.

I kept repeating the three processes. Each round narrowed down my observations, until I kept receiving the same signals again and again. One of the processes works with a person’s timeline. The conclusion it kept arriving at surprised even me: he would wake up in three days.

I was so shocked that I tested it again and again, checking for other numbers of days. Each time, the observation came back the same. Three days was the conclusive observation.

By the end, after two hours and fifteen minutes, I was completely exhausted. My whole body was tingling and my legs were shaking.

His wife offered me some water and looked at me with eyes full of hope. I told her I would share the details with Mandeep, but that, God willing, he should wake up by the end of the third day.

She looked at me, stunned, and thanked me. I went home, told Mandeep which three processes I had used and the timeline that had come up, and then I slept.

The three days

Day 1 passed. Nothing happened.

Day 2 passed. Nothing happened.

Day 3… also passed. Nothing happened.

I was waiting for the phone to ring. I was so sure it would. But it did not. My own mind started its chatter and reached its conclusion: obviously nothing had happened. Why would anyone call to say nothing happened?

Days 4, 5 and 6 also… ended.

BUT then, at the end of day 6, my phone rang. It was not Mandeep. It was the patient’s wife.

“It happened exactly as you said. My husband woke up on the third day. We were all so shocked, so happy and so worried that we forgot to call you.”

When he opened his eyes and started making sounds, the family had called the medical staff. She told me the staff were amazed, and called it a miracle of God. Even Mandeep had not known until then.

What the family reported afterwards

He had opened his eyes. He was still on tubes, but the heavy swelling in his arms, neck, body and feet had reduced massively, as photos showed. He could not speak, but he could answer questions with his eyelids: one blink for yes, two for no. His mind was working.

In Mandeep’s own words

This is the review Mandeep posted on Facebook in February 2019:

“Harsh is a super amazing person, very talented and extremely good at his work. He helped me out… Through my own experience with him, I knew he would be the best choice for the case below. My uncle had been hospitalised for nearly a month for a heart valve replacement. After the successful operation, a brain clot occurred on the right side of the brain. Surgery happened for it, but then again a brain clot happened on the left side, and he completely lost conscious awareness. Since then he was in the ICCU on a ventilator… I feel grateful for the time I decided to call Harsh on 8th Feb. He went to see my uncle on 10th Feb. He did many NLP processes for my uncle. And in the time frame of 3 days, the outcome was that uncle showed signs of improvement towards coming to consciousness… On 13th Feb, a video was taken of uncle where he is opening his eyes. Now he is out of the ICCU and breathing on his own. Also, the swelling has reduced very significantly. Can’t thank Harsh enough for his help.”

Ms. Mandeep, Facebook review

What this case does and does not mean

I am not challenging the medical professionals or the work they do. I am simply sharing what worked for this one person.

• It does not mean NLP cures a coma. I cannot say what caused him to wake up, and I will not claim that I did.
• It does not replace medical care. The medical team cared for him before, during and after my visit.
• What it does show is what happened in this one case: the family’s account, the timeline that came up during the process, and the day he opened his eyes.

If someone you love is seriously ill

The medical team comes first. Always. If the family wishes, and the medical team permits it, NLP can be offered alongside medical care, never instead of it. I will always be honest with you about what I can and cannot promise.

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This is a client and family account of an Advanced NLP Coaching intervention, not medical or psychological treatment. Results vary from person to person. Nothing in this article is medical advice. If someone you love is seriously ill, please follow the advice of their medical team.