Did you hear the one about the . . .

This is a true story reported by TVP and BBC.

A Polish man who worked on the railroad woke up from a 19-year coma to find the Communist party no longer in power and food no longer rationed. Jan Grzebski, 65, fell into a coma after he was hit by a train in 1988.

"Now I see people on the streets with mobile phones and there are so many goods in the shops it makes my head spin," he told Polish television.

[Watch BBC News Clip]

Devoted wife (another reason to marry a Polish woman)

He credits his survival to his wife, Gertruda, who cared for him. Doctors gave him only two or three years to live after the accident.

"It was Gertruda that saved me, and I'll never forget it," Mr Grzebski told Polish news channel TVN24 of his recovery.

Mrs Grzebski is reported to have moved her husband every hour on the hour to prevent bed sores. "Those who came to see us kept asking: 'When is he going to die?' But he's not dead."

When Mr Grzebski had his accident Poland was still ruled by its last communist leader, Wojciech Jaruzelski. "When I went into a coma there was only tea and vinegar in the shops, meat was rationed and huge petrol queues were everywhere," Mr Grzebski said.

"What amazes me today is all these people who walk around with their mobile phones and never stop moaning," said Mr Grzebski.

"I've got nothing to complain about."