Terry Wallis, ‘Man who slept for 19 years,’ dies nearly 20 years after miracle awakening from coma
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ark. (KAIT/Gray News) - Terry Wallis, known as “The man who slept 19 years,” died earlier this week in Arkansas.
The Arkansas native woke from a 19-year coma in 2003 after a crash nearly took his life in 1984. He became the subject of many news and medical articles, including Time Magazine and Mayo Clinic publications.
KAIT reports the American Journal of Medicine in 2006 reported Wallis as being the first person ever documented to regenerate brain cells, according to his daughter, Amber.
According to an obituary provided by the Roller-Coffman Funeral Home, Wallis died in Searcy, Arkansas, at the Advanced Care Hospital on Tuesday.
Wallis’ family shared that the 1984 crash happened six weeks after his daughter was born when his truck skidded off a bridge in Stone County, Arkansas.
After a year in a coma, Wallis stabilized into a minimally conscious state. Still, doctors believed his condition would not improve, and his improvement shocked the world, according to his obituary.
Wallis is survived by his father, daughter and three grandchildren.
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