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."

Poor Doctors

Doctors launched a nationwide open-ended strike Monday, demanding a pay raise amid complaints that the Polish health system is underfunded and medical professionals are overworked.

More than 200 of the nation's roughly 600 state hospitals were providing only emergency services according to the All-Poland Doctors' Union. Another 100 hospitals were set to join the strike if a settlement was not reached quickly, he said.


Doctors are seeking a more than 100 percent increase to their monthly salaries, currently at about $460 for general doctors and $1,080 for specialists.

Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said the doctors' demands were unrealistic this year, adding that such a pay increase would cost an estimated $3.9 billion and would "break public finances." He said health care wages should increase starting next year.

The doctors have suggested charging patients nominal fees for some services to help fund changes to the health system. Basic health care in Poland is free.

Low wages have forced doctors to take additional jobs in private clinics, and thousands of doctors and nurses have moved abroad for better-paid jobs, primarily to Britain and Ireland, since Poland joined the European Union in 2004.

The lack of funds has plagued Poland's state health care system and provoked strikes and street protests since the collapse of Communism in 1989.