[coryfklein]

> escaping a black hole is impossible

Except for Hawking Radiation [1]

"black holes that do not gain mass through other means are expected to shrink and ultimately vanish. Micro black holes are predicted to be larger emitters of radiation than larger black holes and should shrink and dissipate faster."

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation

[InclinedPlane]

Hawking Radiation comes from outside the event horizon.

[Retra]

Hawking radiation takes energy away from the inside of a black hole.

[InclinedPlane]

Certainly, but the radiation still comes from outside the event horizon.

[coryfklein]

Sounds like the confusion here comes from labeling matter outside the event horizon as "not the black hole". With this wording you can say that nothing escapes the black hole by forever shrinking the region of what constitutes the black hole.

In the end, matter/energy that was inside the black hole can eventually exist in a region that is no longer referred to as part of the black hole.

^ This being my non-physicist layman interpretation, I'm happy to be enlightened if I'm wrong.