Saudi Arabia’s ‘Sleeping Prince’ spends 36th birthday in coma after 20 years
Prince Al-Waleed bin Khaled bin Talal of Saudi Arabia has turned 36 years old while still in a coma.
The young student at a military college got involved in a car accident that left him with a serious head injury in 2005.
He has been unconscious for nearly 20 years after the incident and has been in a coma.
He has been kept alive ever since with the help of machines at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh. His family has cared for him and refused to give up hope.
Doctors had suggested removing him from life support, but his father, Prince Khaled bin Talal Al Saud, chose to keep fighting for his son’s life.
"If God had wanted him to die in the accident, he would have been in his grave now," his father was quoted by local reports.
Prince Al-Waleed is a member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family and the great-grandson of King Abdulaziz, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia.
In 2019, small movements like raising a finger or turning his head gave the family some hope, but he remains in a coma today, connected to a ventilator and feeding tube.
