British teenager Joseph Flavill fell into a 10-month coma before the pandemic. Now he's waking up in a new world. On March 10 2020, when the 19-year-old was struck by a car in Staffordshire, central England, the United Kingdom had recorded just 23 cases of a concerning new virus. The vast majority of Covid-19 infections were still confined to China, and the United States had confirmed just one death.

Katie had long wondered what it would be like to confront the current pandemic with no knowledge of it. Something that has felt incremental and eventually normalised — the masks, restrictions, knowledge of the virus itself and the vaccines — would feel so alien. When she saw this headline one day on social media, she immediately went on the hunt for more information about comas. In this episode, we explore the different types of comas, causes and treatments, as well as first-hand accounts of what it's like to wake up from one. We also contemplate how Joseph might feel emerging into a very different world from the one he left. 

Please note: Katie is no doctor, so take everything you hear with a grain of salt. A very large one at that.

Extra reading: 

CNN Article: A British teenager fell into a 10-month coma before the pandemic. Now he's waking up in a new world

Time article: Longest 10 comas