A man who vowed to spend his life caring for his comatose girlfriend may have been the one who caused her injuries.

While Lin Yingying, 22, lay in a coma for eight long months, her 25-year-old boyfriend Liu Fenghe sat by her side.

He dedicated hundreds of hours to her care — not to mention thousands of dollars — and was hailed by the Chineses media as “devoted”, a “hero”, a “model boyfriend”.

“I want to take care of her for the rest of my life,” he told a local news outlet. “Even if I have to push her around in a wheelchair, I would be happy.”

Doctors worried Lin would be reduced to a vegetative state by her debilitating head injury, but miraculously, early last year, she woke up.

Even more remarkably, her memory seemed to remain in tact and she was able to shed some light on her attacker: she said her boyfriend did it.

Lin Yingying says her boyfriend hit her with a rolling pin. Image: Weibo

At first she stayed silent, apparently fearing for her safety, but a few months after waking up, Lin told her family what he had done.

She said she recalled Liu hitting her with a rolling pin at the bakery they ran together, after she burnt some loaves of bread.

She said she remembered the smell of burning bread in her nostrils as she listened to him call the emergency services.

She said it also wasn’t the first time he had been violent towards her.

Her claims are currently being investigated by Chinese authorities.