Man shocks mother by waking from coma after 19 years

A MAN who was in a coma for 19 years after a car crash has woken up and spoken to his mother, who was sitting at his bedside.

Terry Wallis began slowly with just a few nouns, but gradually a torrent of phrases came pouring forth.

"He started out with 'Mum', then 'Pepsi' and then 'milk'," said Alesha Badgley, director of the Arkansas rehabilitation centre where Wallis is being cared for. "Now it is anything he wants to say."

His mother Angilee Wallis said it was a miracle: "I couldn't tell you my first thought, I just fell over on the floor," she said.

Terry, now 39, was driving with a friend in July 1984 when their car left the road and plunged into a creek. The pair were found the next day under a bridge the friend was dead and Wallis was in a coma.

His daughter Amber, who was born just before the accident, is now 19.

Terry was left as a quadriplegic as a result of the crash, and said he is determined to walk again for his daughter. He woke up on June 13 this year, but his amazing recovery was only reported yesterday.

"It has been hard dealing with it, it has been hard realising the man I married cannot be there," said his wife, Sandi. "The whole family missed out on his company."

The silence ended when Wallis uttered his first word.

His father Jerry Wallis said his son now talks almost non-stop now, but it seems as though time stopped for him after the crash Terry still believes Ronald Reagan is president.

Terry has asked to speak to his grandmother, who died several years ago, and even recited her phone number something everyone else in the family had forgotten.

Perry Wallis, Terry' brother, said: "It was pure hell to see your brother laying there, not knowing if you will ever talk to him again."

The timing of the recovery also raised eyebrows.

"It was kind of peculiar. He wrecked on Friday the 13th and 19 years later he started talking on Friday the 13th," Jerry Wallis said.