Two patients who were in a vegetative state at Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University in Changsha, Hunan Province, since last year, have woken up after receiving medicine and inhaling pure oxygen for months, Xinhuanet reported Tuesday.

One patient was hospitalized after falling from the 13th floor of a construction site late last year; while the other patient fell into a coma after a car crash on the day of her wedding last year.

Chinese doctors implanted spinal cord electric stimulators on the patients and used medicine and hyperbaric oxygen therapy on them, the report said.

Though the report did not specify when the two patients gained consciousness, it said that they are now able to eat and move around in wheelchairs on their own, and stand up with help from their families.

Jiang Yugang, director of neurosurgery at the hospital, said that China lacks a mature and regulated system and clinical guidelines to treat patients in deep comas, and only sporadic success cases have been reported.

According to the report, some 100,000 patients fall into a vegetative state due to major traumatic brain injury or critical cerebral vascular disease every year, which has placed a serious burden on society.