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Ark. Man Wakes After 19 Years in Coma
AP via Earthlink ^ | July 9, 2003

Posted on 07/09/2003 5:47:15 AM PDT by Pest

Ark. Man Wakes After 19 Years in Coma

July 9, 2003 07:56 AM EDT

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

Terry Wallis, who had been in a coma since a 1984 car accident, regained consciousness last month to the surprise of doctors and the delight of his family, including his mother, who heard his first word in 19 years.

"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.

His mother, Angilee Wallis, called her son's return to consciousness a miracle: "I couldn't tell you my first thought, I just fell over on the floor," she said.

Terry Wallis, now 39, was riding with a friend in July 1984 when their car left the road and plunged into a creek. Wallis and his friend were found the next day underneath a bridge. The friend was dead and Wallis was comatose.

Wallis' daughter, Amber, was born shortly before the accident, and the coma dragged on for almost two decades. She is now 19 and her dad has said he wants to walk again, for her. He is a quadriplegic as a result of the crash.

"It's been hard dealing with it, it's been hard realizing the man I married can't be there," said Wallis' wife, Sandi. "We all, the whole family, missed out on his company."

The silence ended June 12 when Wallis uttered his first word. He was able to talk a little more a day later and has improved ever since.

Terry's father, Jerry Wallis, said his son talks almost nonstop now, but it seems as though time stopped for him after the wreck. Terry still believes Ronald Reagan is the 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.

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

For the Wallis family, Terry's return to consciousness has been a blessing.

Perry Wallis, Terry' brother, said "just to put it bluntly, it was pure hell to see your brother laying there, not knowing if you'll ever talk to him again."

The timing of the recovery also has raised eyebrows.

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: arkansas; coma
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To: yonif
What else? The internet! then the O.J. Trial comes to mind.

For others I googled up a timeline from 1984 to 1999 and picked out a few more:

The Cosby Show, "We Are The World", The New Coke, Nintendo, Chernobyl, Oprah, Jimmy Bakker and Jessica Hahn, Gary Hart and Donna Rice, Sonny Bono becomes Mayor of Palm Springs, Arsenio Hall, Salmon Rushdie and the Exxon Valdez, the stealth bomber, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Lyle and Erik Menendez, Milli Vanilli, the Pete Rose ban, the new movie rating system, Dr. Kevorkian, Johnny Carson leaves The Tonight Show, the fall of the Soviet Union, Biosphere I and II, Tailhook, Jeffrey Dahmer, Clarence Thomas, Anita Hill, Rodney King, the Mall of America, the Long Island Lolita and Joey Buttafucco, Mike Tyson, Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding, David Koresh and the Waco Tragedy, John & Lorena Bobbitt, the New Kids on the Block, the Unabomber, TWA Flight 800, ebonics, Dolly the sheep, the Royal Divorce and the death of Princess Diana, the Heaven's Gate cult, Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds, the Spice Girls, Brandi Chastain and her sports bra, Pamela Anderson, Ricky Martin and Elian Gonzalez.

Interesting...

81 posted on 07/09/2003 8:23:09 AM PDT by Hatteras (The Thundering Herd Of Turtles ROCK!)
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To: wideawake
The Hemlock Society would've euthanized him 18.5 years ago.
82 posted on 07/09/2003 8:24:39 AM PDT by ThomasMore
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To: barker
Thanks. You too. At least we're setting some records...
83 posted on 07/09/2003 8:42:11 AM PDT by BMiles2112
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To: deathscythex
Same here. I was 6 and went to my first of many games that year. Instant fan. We'll win it again, just not this year, or next, or next...
84 posted on 07/09/2003 8:48:09 AM PDT by BMiles2112
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To: varina davis
Maybe he was just trying to wait until the Clintons were gone.

He didn't wait long enough then.

God bless him! His family must have had abundant faith and patience.

85 posted on 07/09/2003 8:57:51 AM PDT by arasina (Blank)
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To: arasina
Just someone coming in the room with an ultra small laptop(with wirrless link to the internet) a palmpilot and a cellphone would be a shock... hell it look like friging star trek.... however to him, were are the flying cars?..what no moon base?... were not on mars yet?
86 posted on 07/09/2003 9:18:52 AM PDT by tophat9000
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To: Pest
Another shock for him - The Buccaneers won the Super Bowl.
87 posted on 07/09/2003 9:27:21 AM PDT by stboz
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To: Mr. K
Have you all forgotten the really important thing which happened between 1984 and now? We won the Cold War!

Now, if someone wants to have fun messing with him, before filling him in on politics, culture, and technology, they can tell him

1. In the first war of the new century, the most technologically advanced soldiers in the world rode into battle on horseback.

2. A column of T-55 tanks supported by B-52 bombing runs took the enemy capital.

3. This was a war between the United States and Afghanistan, and we used bases in Uzbekistan, now a stauch ally, to conduct the war.

4. They started it by attacking us first, causing more US casualties than in any one-day engagement since the Civil War.

Its rather a shame he's from Arkansas so you all focused on the idiot president from his state rather than the real changes in the world since he fell into the coma.

Once the shock that the Soviet Union is no more (because Russia seceeded (?!!) sinks in, then the fact that the enemy are now Muslims who want to take the world back to the 12th century, someone needs to show him a big flat-screen TV running a really well-rendered PS-2 game, and a Mac G4 laptop connected to the internet by a wireless connection.

Actually, he probably should be eased into the changes in the world after getting reacquainted with his family. (But my won't he be surprised!)
88 posted on 07/09/2003 10:19:18 AM PDT by The_Reader_David
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To: BibChr
I had a similar thought: the upside is, he missed Clinton.

The downside is that this might make it easier for the liberals to rewrite history and convince him that the whole scandal was about nothing but a BJ.

89 posted on 07/09/2003 10:44:52 AM PDT by lowbridge (Rob: "I see a five letter word. F-R-E-E-P. Freep." Jerry: "Freep? What's that?" - Dick Van Dyke Show)
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To: krb
Francisco Franco is still dead

Awesome - lol! : )
90 posted on 07/09/2003 10:53:33 AM PDT by Stone Mountain
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To: Vesuvian
Well I sure hope the family had one heck of a good insurance policy!!! 19 years? The cost must have been astronomical!
91 posted on 07/09/2003 12:13:44 PM PDT by kellynla ("C" 1/5 1st Mar Div Viet Nam '69 & '70 Semper Fi)
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To: TheRightGuy; jgrubbs
I'm also pretty sure the 1.2 MB FDD came along quite a bit later.

According to csgnetworks.com (and they've been in business THAT long), the 1.2 MB 5.25" drive came out in 1978, while the 720 KB 3.5" drive came out in 1980 and the 1.4 MB 3.5" drive came out in 1984. IIRC, the 3.5" drives as well as the 1.2 MB 5.25 drive were not exactly standard equipment on PCs until the 386s were introduced in 1985. In any case, it's a far cry from what $6,000 would get you today.

As for the speed, the 286s ran up to 20 MHz. I know that the initial launch in 1982 covered 6, 8, 10 and 12 MHz, but I haven't been able to find out when the 16 and 20 MHz models came out. However, I'd have to say that both were available by 1984.

My memory is a bit hazy on prices, but I think that $6,000 would have gotten a 286-12, 640KB RAM, a pair of 360 KB drives, and CGA color graphics.

92 posted on 07/09/2003 12:16:59 PM PDT by steveegg (Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, air-burst artillery and thermonuclear weapons)
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To: yonif
bills crime I mean the "Crime Bill" (gun ban)
93 posted on 07/09/2003 12:23:02 PM PDT by ChefKeith (NASCAR...everything else is just a game!)
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To: Pest
Well, he missed Madonna's entire career. Lucky dude!
94 posted on 07/09/2003 12:25:34 PM PDT by KellyAdmirer
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To: jgrubbs
Nice photo. He looks like 20 miles of bad road.

Living wills, anyone?

95 posted on 07/09/2003 12:31:07 PM PDT by verity
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To: DonQ
The we can tell him that liberal propogandists no longer have free reign in this country because the internet, cable TV news and talk radio have made it easier to expose lies and deliberate misrepresentations like your post.
96 posted on 07/09/2003 12:33:09 PM PDT by kidd
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To: yonif
Short list of stuff I don't think was mentioned yet:
  1. The ChiComs, French and Germans becoming our enemies again (Tiannamen Square didn't quite do it)
  2. Hong Kong's gone Communist, and Nike's gone to Vietnam to make shoes
  3. The Japanese and Germans are making cars here
  4. Lexus/Acura/Infiniti (the Japanese storm the luxury car market)
  5. SUVs
  6. iD Software
  7. The end of apartheid in South Africa
  8. The NWO

97 posted on 07/09/2003 12:38:17 PM PDT by steveegg (Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, air-burst artillery and thermonuclear weapons)
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To: steveegg
Chat rooms, Attention Deficit Disorder, Prozac, VIAGRA!
98 posted on 07/09/2003 12:40:43 PM PDT by Pest
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To: Pest
What will he say when he finds out that he voted a straight Democratic ticket in the last 4 presidential elections.
99 posted on 07/09/2003 12:49:02 PM PDT by Vinnie_Vidi_Vici
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To: Vinnie_Vidi_Vici
What will he say when he finds out that he voted a straight Democratic ticket in the last 4 presidential elections.

That has to be one of the funniest things I have heard in quite some time!

100 posted on 07/09/2003 12:50:49 PM PDT by Pest
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