Before Ariel Sharon: Some lengthy comas

Jerusalem: Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, who died aged 85 Saturday, had been in coma for eight years after suffering a massive stroke.

Here are some previous cases of lengthy comas:

Martha "Sunny" Von Bulow: The American heiress died aged 76 on December 7, 2008 of cardiopulmonary arrest after spending nearly 28 years in a coma, which the authorities alleged was a result of her husband`s second attempt to kill her.

The global news media was transfixed by the trials against her husband and the drama also captured Hollywood`s attention and was made into the 1990 film "Reversal of Fortune" by Barbet Schroeder starring Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons.

Jean-Michel Baron: The French motorcyclist died September 2, 2010 at the age of 56, after 24 years spent in a vegetative state following a crash on the Dakar Rally.

Baron was 31 when he fell heavily in Niger during his second Paris-Dakar in January 1986, after which he spent several months in hospital before being taken home, where he lived for 23 years in a coma.

Eluana Englaro: The Italian woman at the centre of a right-to-die drama that gripped Italy had been in a coma for 17 years since a road accident when she died aged 38 on February 9, 2009.

Doctors in Udine, northeast Italy, stopped feeding Englaro after a 10-year legal battle, during which the Vatican and most of the political right, including conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, campaigned against her family`s wish for a mercy killing.

Terri Schiavo: The severely brain-damaged woman at the centre of an acrimonious legal battle over her fate that even drew in the US president, died aged 41 on March 31, 2005, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed.

She had been in what doctors called a "persistent vegetative state" for 15 years, after heart failure in 1990.

Her parents had fought for their daughter to be kept alive, while her husband Michael Schiavo pleaded for her to be allowed to die.

Elaine Esposito: The American girl aged six when she fell into a vegetative state after an appendicitis operation holds the record for the longest coma at 37 years and 111 days. She died in 1978.

Terry Wallis: While lengthy comas are often considered as irreversible, this is not always so. American Terry Wallis emerged from a coma in 2003 after falling into a vegetative state following a road accident 20 years earlier.