Dad woke from coma in Birmingham hospital with extraordinary artistic talents

A dad who baffled medics by waking from a coma with newfound artistic talents has revealed paintings of the extraordinary visions he had 'while on the other side'.

Moe Hunter, 39, emerged from a month-long coma with special creative abilities he never had before. He suddenly discovered he had an artistic flair and an inexplicable talent for drawing, painting and model building - despite being "rubbish at art at school."

Moe went from working at Burger King to using his new skills to become a professional carpenter and model maker. He said he has since found that people who are blown away by his incredible story always ask what he saw, if anything, while in his coma.

Medics say the comatose brain shows no sign of normal sleep-cycle which allows for dreaming - but many people who recover from comas report doing so. This was also the case for Moe, who has now shared an insight into the bizarre visions he saw.

He has now documented his experience in a book and released artwork which depicts the 'places he went to' in his coma.

Moe, of Hereford, said: "I've had so many people who read my story last year wanting to know more about what I saw in the coma.

"Everything I saw, felt, and heard is burnt into my mind and I can remember it like it was yesterday. I told my neurologist when I woke up from the coma and he stared at for around three minutes.

"He then said 'hmm that's interesting, because it's highly unlikely to dream in a coma Moe.'

"I told him that's what I had seen and he said it might have been the brain trying to overcome the severe trauma from the Tuberculosis and meningitis. I decided to write a book about my experience and the things I saw and I've now recently painted them after being encouraged by my wife and family.

"I was too afraid to at first as I still get nightmares about some of them but it's not very often you get an insight into what it's like being in a coma."

Moe said he experienced terrifying shadowy figures by a canal, giant Russian nesting dolls and an Egyptian looking dog, which 'kept him safe'.

He added: "I remember everything so vividly, at first I heard sirens and going in and out of consciousness, and then I ended up in a garden.

"I heard dog footsteps coming toward me through the mist and a black Egyptian looking hound walked up to me but it gave me a sense of safety.

"That's when I looked around and there was a house which was the darkest black you'd ever see. There was a huge entity black which was in the shape of a giant Russian nesting doll.

"This was just one of the many extraordinary and mind-blowing experiences that I had. There was another place I went to in the coma which still seriously haunts me till this day, I was standing next to an old looking canal, Victorian era.

"And there was a small brick bridge there was black shadowy figures standing on this small bridge with bright, warm lights emitting from their eyes.

"I remember walking to the edge of the canal near the water and that's when I heard something moving toward me coming from under the bridge in the water.

"It was a figure, a hooded figure, but it just seemed like it was a floating black robe and it stopped in front of me.

"I got on and when I was on I looked at these things on the bridge and a voice echoed through me "do not gaze upon those on the bridge."

"Then towards the end of the coma I was sat in a hole that was in a wall of grass behind me was a hole, that led back to the world of the living. In front was another world with huge mountains and thick leafed trees, rolling green hills with green like iv never seen in the waking life.

"Blue skies and puffy clouds and behind me outside the hole my mom and little brother were reaching inside to grab me telling me to come back to life.

"Two of my pictures depict both side of the walls and I called this place 'the place between two sides'. These experiences changed my life completely."

Moe was struck down by a rare form bacterial meningitis and tuberculosis in his brain which left him fighting for his life in 2004.

He was left in a coma as doctors performed vital lifesaving surgery by installing a shunt to drain fluid from his brain at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital. After waking from his coma, he soon left his friends and family gobsmacked when he started to display a special gift he didn't possess before.

Moe began building intricate life-size model replicas from the world of TV and film and has seen this artwork displayed at Comic-Con events across the country.

Married dad-of-one Moe has also sold pieces of his artwork and continues to work as a self-employed carpenter.

He says medical professionals were left flabbergasted by the freak phenomenon before his neurologist told him: "Just enjoy it."

Moe said: "I really wasn't creative before in the slightest, in fact people used to laugh at my drawings. I was more interested in going out, football and computer games.

“Even to this day some of my family can’t believe it, they’re still completely shocked. It's insane but when I spoke to the neurologist he just said 'enjoy it' and said there's so much about the brain they still can't decipher and this is just a phenomenon.

“I look at all of my stuff now and I'm like 'never in a trillion years could I do this stuff'. I have no idea how it happened.

"Nobody has really given a medical explanation for it. I just know comas can do crazy things to a human brain." Moe has just finished writing a screenplay about his own experience and hopes it will get picked up by TV bosses.

His book 'A Numb Conversation & The Place Between Two Sides' can be purchased on Amazon for £5.99.