Elaine Esposito

Who was Elaine Esposito?

Elaine Esposito holds the record for longest coma according to the Guinness World Records, having lost consciousness in 1941 and eventually dying in that condition more than 37 years later.

Elaine was the only child of Louis and Lucy Esposito of Chicago, Illinois. At age 6 she was taken to a hospital having suffered a ruptured appendix, where she underwent an appendectomy on August 6, 1941. She never awoke after being anesthetized. As the surgery was coming to an end, she went into convulsions, her temperature rose to 107.6 °F, and doctors feared that she would not survive the night. The cause of the complication was debated with some suggesting that Elaine had encephalitis and others saying that her brain was not receiving enough oxygen during the operation.

The first ten months of her coma were spent in a Chicago hospital until her parents could no longer afford her care, at which point they took her home so her mother Lucy could care for her day and night. In her lengthy coma she showed states of both deep sleep and open-eyed unconsciousness and she grew slightly to 85 pounds. Elaine survived numerous other conditions over the years, including additional abdominal surgery, pneumonia, the measles, and a collapsed lung. The family eventually moved to Tarpon Springs, Florida, and she was also taken to visit the Grotto at Lourdes, France where her parents hoped for a miracle. Her father, Louis, who had been working multiple jobs, died from cancer in January 1978. Elaine died at the age of 43 years 357 days, having been in a coma for 37 years 111 days.