Man Spends 19 Years in Coma, Wakes up & Learns His Parents Kicked Out His Wife & Newborn Daughter

  • Terry Wallis went into a coma in 1984 after a bad truck accident.
  • He was in a vegetative state for many months but gained back his memory and vocabulary in a few years.
  • Little did he know that his family was keeping heartbreaking secrets from him.

Terry Wallis was in the back of a truck with two of his other friends when it lost control and railed off a bridge in the Ozark Mountains of northern Arkansas.

The truck landed upside down and left Wallis, 19, in a coma; one of his friends died, and the other recovered. Wallis was in a vegetative state for several months.

Terry Wallis in Arkansas in 1984 | Source: Getty Images

The accident happened in 1984, and it was not only until 2003 that the man showed signs of progress. The nurses said Wallis could track objects and was able to blin when instructed to. Nevertheless, he showed real signs of hope when his mother, Angilee, was sitting beside him, and he said, "Mom."

When his consciousness was more promising, his mother informed him that he had a daughter, Amber, who was only six weeks old at the time of his accident.

Facing a Painful Reality after Years in a Coma

Wallis' condition got many doctors interested in the way the brain functions. It revealed its powers when three days after recognizing his mother, the father of one was verbally fluent.

Terry Wallis and his wife Sandra in Arkansas in 1984 | Source: Getty Images

Dr. Nicholas Schiff, a professor of neurology and neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medicine in Manhattan, was one of the doctors the led imaging studies of Wallis's brain and even published the results in a medical journal.

Schiff revealed that Wallis was confused and disorientated when he first woke, so much so that he thought it was still 1984. However, the good thing was that he still remembered his family and spoke perfectly.

As the story unraveled, more details about the family came to light that would not land well with the crash victim.

Terry Wallis with his wife Sandra and daughter Amber in Arkansas in 2002 | Source: Getty Images

Firstly, Wallis and been married to his wife, Sandi, and they had a daughter, but Sandi went on to have three children with another man.

Additionally, his daughter Amber was thrown to the curb and was now working as a stripper, all that Wallis was not aware of.

His wife Sandi reasoned that she was afraid to break the news to him because she feared it would slow his healing progress.

Terry Wallis' wife Sandra in Arkansas in 2002 | Source: Getty Images

However, the mother of four realized that sooner or later, she might have to reveal the painful details to her husband or the media.

His Mother Kicked His Wife Out

Sandi admitted that Angilee and her husband Jerry had cut her from the family. At the time of the accident, Sandi was only 17 and had a mental breakdown after the accident.

A picture of Terry Wallis and his wife Sandra in Arkansas in 1984 | Source: Getty Images

However, she confessed that her in-laws sent her a letter and told her she needed to move on with her life. Sandi admitted that things were difficult for her. She struggled to process the incident and carry the responsibility of caring for her daughter.

Additionally, Sandi did not know things would get as bad as being completely cut off from the family. Angilee reportedly even limited her access to Amber.

Terry Wallis' mother- in-law-in and family in Arkansas in 2003 | Source: Getty Images

On the other side, Sandi found it challenging to move on because she claimed she had an "unusual relationship" with the father of her other kids, Mike.

She told Mike that they could not marry because she would never divorce Wallis, so Mike married another woman, Eleanor, and together they raised the three children.

Amber started working as a strip tease dancer at 20 in a nightclub in Memphis. When her father gained consciousness, she and her grandmother visited him often.

Terry Wallis and his wife Sandra in Arkansas in 2002 | Source: Getty Images

In fact, Wallis praised Amber for her beauty and told her he would work hard to get back on his feet and show her off publicly.

But during these bonding sessions, Amber never mentioned her job. As for the relationship Angilee has with her daughter-in-law, she reportedly refused to speak on it, but someone at the hospital confirmed that Wallis' mother was his legal guardian and took care of his medical bills.

Terry Wallis' his wife Sandra in Arkansas in 2003 | Source: Getty Images

Even though Wallis is under the care of his mother, Sandi would love to be included in his life and be remembered as someone important to him.

Terry Wallis Lost His Battle

Although Wallis showed promising signs of recovery and was able to be part of a brain study that indicated that parts of the brain had the power to heal themselves back to normal, he eventually died.

He was 57 when he passed and had now developed heart problems and pneumonia, as his brother George confirmed. Here's a story about a boy that prayed for his grandfather to get out of a coma.

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