Coma man's 19 years of catching up

Stephen Hull|Metro13 April 2012

A road accident victim has awoken from almost two decades in a coma, it was revealed yesterday.

Terry Wallis's mother, Angilee, told of the moment he first opened his eyes.

She said: 'The first words he said were "Mum", "Pepsi" and "milk".

'I just fell over on the floor and didn't know what to think. It's a miracle.'

For his wife Sandi and daughter Amber, who was born just before her father's accident, his recovery marks the end of their own waking nightmare.

And for Mr Wallis it has meant catching up on the many events he has missed in the past 19 years.

The farmer woke thinking Ronald Reagan was still US President. He had never heard of George W Bush, used a mobile phone or logged on to the Internet.

Mr Wallis was left in a coma on Friday, July 13, 1984, after the truck in which he was travelling crashed into a stream.

He was paralysed from the neck down. Doctors gave him little chance of regaining consciousness but Mr Wallis's parents put him in a rehabilitation centre - and so began years of waiting.

Every other weekend they drove him to the family farm in the belief that familiar

surroundings might awaken him. Wife Sandi said: 'There was just no way we could give up hope - I married him for better or worse.'

Four weeks ago, his mother went to the centre in Mountain View, Arkansas, for her usual visit. It was then Mr Wallis opened his eyes and spoke.

Bizarrely, it was also Friday the 13th. He is now talking freely and getting to know his daughter.

But his speech is still slurred and doctors say he will never walk again. And Mr Wallis's memory is stuck in the past - he could remember his grandmother's phone number, although she died years ago and his family had long forgotten it.

His father, Jerry, said: 'You see, the problem is that he's still back in 1984.'

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