Man Wakes, Greets Mother After Two Decades in Coma
Angilee Wallis sits at a table in a store near her Big Flat, Ark., home with family photos of her son Terry Wallis late Tuesday, July 8, 2003. Terry, 39, had been in a coma since July 1984, until he began talking in June 2003. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ark. — A man regained consciousness after spending 19 years in a coma (search) as the result of a car crash, greeting his mother who was waiting at his bedside.
"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 (search) social director Alesha Badgley said Tuesday.
Terry Wallis, 39, had been at the center since the July 1984 crash.
His father, Jerry Wallis, said his son uttered his first word June 12, was able to talk a little a day later and has improved ever since.
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