Updated: Man Wakes, Speaks After 19 Years in Coma

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ark.
The words began tumbling out of Terry Wallis � at first just a few nouns and eventually a torrent of phrases.

Wallis, who slipped into a coma after a 1984 car accident, spoke last month for the first time in 19 years to the surprise of doctors and the delight of his family.

"He started out with 'Mom' and surprised her and then it was 'Pepsi' and then it was 'milk.' And now it's anything he wants to say," Stone County Nursing and Rehabilitation Center social director Alesha Badgley said Tuesday

"You see, he's still back in 1984," said Jerry Wallis.


Read the very end of this story kind of freaky.

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See post below for update.

[Edited on 16-7-2003 by MiStErBeLLaTrIx]

that's great news dude! but this guy, hell, he's gonna want to go back to sleep in a month. i'll put money on that. what are these special FX?

Well, that is dedication. My family would pull the plug on me after 2 weeks. How much brain damage does he have?

SLOWLY but surely, Terry Wallis is rediscovering his world. After 19 years in a coma he has a lot of catching up to do.
But now the crash victim's family are steeling themselves to break the news that during those lost years his wife had three children by another man.

They will also have to tell him the daughter he remembers as a six-week-old baby is now working as a stripper.
Then there is the feud between his wife and his parents that will eventually come to court.

So far, 39-year-old Mr Wallis's family have tried to shield him from the barrage of grim tidings, which they fear could hinder his recovery.
But his wife Sandi says he will soon have to know the bitter truth. She is going to court to fight an order making Mr Wallis's mother his legal guardian after his accident in July 1984.
He was left unconscious and paralysed after a friend's truck rolled off a road and into a stream near his home in Mountain View, Arkansas. His friend died in the accident.
He and Sandi had been married only a few months and had a six-week-old daughter, Amber.
Yesterday Mrs Wallis claimed she had been cut out of her husband's life by his mother Angilee and father Jerry when she panicked and broke down after the accident. She was 17 at the time.
Mr Wallis's parents say their daughter-in-law sent them a letter saying she had to move on.

"I didn't expect to be cut out of his life completely," Mrs Wallis said.

"It's too sad. I was too young and had the baby to look after, and everything seemed too much for me.

"The truth is, Mrs Wallis and Jerry never thought I was any good and that's why they took guardianship. Now they cut me dead in the street and won't even talk to Amber."
Mrs Wallis said she had "an unusual relationship" with the father of her three other children - whom she would only name as Mike.
When they first met, she said, she told him they could not marry because she would never divorce her comatose husband.
So Mike married another woman, Eleanor, and they care for the three children, aged 14, 15, and 16.
Mrs Wallis said: "The kids live with Mike and Eleanor and call her Mum. But they call me Mum too. They know I'm their biological mother and we are all good friends and see each other all the time."

Amber, 20, has been a striptease dancer in a nightclub in Memphis in the neighbouring state of Tennessee for two years.

She visits her father, who remains unaware of her job.
He tells her how pretty she is and says he is determined to walk again so he can walk down the street with her.

But Mr Wallis faces a long and uncertain recovery. He is a quadriplegic and is expected to spend many months in rehabilitation at the centre where he is looked after in Mountain View.

The remarkable fact that he emerged from a coma was put down to his family's devotion.

They kept visiting him and talking to him. But he lay in a semi-vegetative state, not seeming to recognise anyone, his mind apparently trapped in 1984 when Ronald Reagan was President and Dallas and Dynasty were on TV.
Then on June 12 while his mother Angilee was keeping one of her regular bedside vigils, a nurse at the centre asked, as usual: "Terry, who is that?"

His eyes opened and he whispered: "Mum."
His mother was so dumb-founded she couldn't speak. Then Mr Wallis croaked "Pepsi", followed by "milk".

Next day he was able to talk a little more and he has been improving ever since.
"He doesn't stop chattering," his father has revealed.

Rehabilitation centre director Dr James Zini said: "The family included him in all of their conversations, as if he were aware they were there."
Mr Wallis's parents yesterday refused to comment on the split with their daughter-in-law.

A hospital spokesman confirmed: "Terry's mother is his legal guardian. She takes care of all his health care and financial matters."
Sandi Wallis said: "Terry is still my husband. I always knew I could never divorce and abandon him. Now I want to be a bigger part of his life."

[Edited on 16-7-2003 by MiStErBeLLaTrIx]

Did he age while in the coma?? Do you age while you are in a coma?

I suppose you age in coma, you body grows old. But your brain's development is less. I don't how it is in real life, but practically one would according to me. It is going to take that guy couple of years to even walk!!

This is an inspiring story, I have a very close friend that has been in a coma for over 7 years after a very bad car accident. After 7 years I have felt his chances of coming out are very slim but this article is reason for hope.

As far as aging in a coma, I'm not a doctor but I would think you definitely age, as most everything in your body is still working.

I'm sure this story is an exception, it's probably extremely rare to wake up after 19 years in a coma, but I'll admit it restored a bit more hope for my friend. Maybe he will be one of the "exceptions", God knows he deserves it.

What's kind of strange is that another friend of mine was killed in the same accident and they had the funeral and everything so there is closure and although I miss him, I accept that he has passed. With my friend in the coma, there was no service or anything obviously so it's like he moved away or something, there wasn't an "end" but he was no longer around. We did have a nice benefit for him to help pay medical costs.

A thought that really disturbs me is I wonder if maybe his mind is working fine and is very much alive but he cant tell anyone or show anyone. It would almost be like being trapped in your own body, that would be pure toture! I pray that isn't the case though. Does anyone else know someone in a coma?

Damn he must feel so, surprised at the things that have happened since he was last conscience. I know that if I was him, I would feel like I missed a lot of history, and wondered what it would be like to have been there. But then again he didn't go through the effects of 9/11 and all these wars, so maybe he's pretty lucky kind of.....