A US man has regained consciousness after spending 19 years in a coma.
Terry Wallis (39), had been at a rehabilitation centre in Mountain View, Arkansas, since a car crash in July 1984.
"He started out with 'Mom' and then it was 'Pepsi' and then it was 'milk'," Alesha Badgley, Stone County Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre social director, said. "And now it's anything he wants to say."
Mr Wallis's wife, Sandi, says he was with a friend when their car plunged into a creek. They were found the next day underneath a bridge. The friend was dead and but her husband survived.
Mr Wallis emerged from the coma two weeks ago.
"It's been hard dealing with it, it's been hard realising the man I married can't be there," Mrs Wallis said. "We all, the whole family, missed out on his company."
Their daughter, Amber, was born shortly before the accident. She is now 19 and Mr Wallis says he wants to walk again, for her. He is a quadriplegic as a result of the crash.
His mother, Angilee Wallis, has called her son's return to consciousness a miracle.
Mr Wallis has spent most of his time at the rehabilitation centre, but his family took him out for weekends and special occasions.
"The doctor said that's why he remembers things. We might have kept his mind going," Sandi Wallis said.
AP