10 Amazing Stories of People Who Woke up From Comas

In medical dramas, people often drift into comas and snap awake just in time for the final commercial break. Real life is much harsher. A coma is usually a medical emergency after severe brain injury, stroke, infection, or cardiac arrest. Many people never fully regain consciousness, and even those who do may face lifelong disabilities.

That’s why stories of people who wake up after days, months, or even decades in a coma feel almost unbelievable. They bend what we think we know about the brain, memory, and consciousness. And in a few cases, they involve details so strange – waking up speaking another language, or responding to one specific song – that they sound like movie plots rather than medical case reports.

Using reporting and analysis from major outlets like the New York Times, BBC, CBS, Associated Press, and other reputable sources, plus the original Listverse feature that popularized many of these stories, this article revisits ten remarkable coma awakenings and what they reveal about the human brain and human resilience.

Understanding Comas (And Why These Stories Are So Rare)

A coma is a state of prolonged unconsciousness. People in comas can’t be awakened, don’t respond normally to pain or light, and don’t initiate voluntary actions. It’s usually caused by things like traumatic brain injury, lack of oxygen, stroke, severe infection, or complications from major surgery.

Most comas last a few days to a couple of weeks. After that, patients may:

• Wake up with varying degrees of disability
• Transition into a minimally conscious state
• Remain in a persistent vegetative state

Long-term recoveries like the ones below are medical outliers. They don’t mean “everyone just needs to play the right song and wait long enough.” Instead, they underline how complex the brain is, and how fragile any prediction about consciousness can be.

10 Amazing Stories of People Who Woke up From Comas

10. The Baker Who Rocked His Way Back: Sam Carter

In 2008, 60-year-old retired baker Sam Carter collapsed with severe anemia in Staffordshire, England. His condition deteriorated rapidly, and he slipped into a coma. Doctors reportedly told his family he had only about a 30% chance of survival. As a last-ditch attempt to reach him, one physician suggested his wife try playing his favorite music.

Carter was a die-hard Rolling Stones fan. His first-ever vinyl single was “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” So his wife put headphones on him and blasted that exact track. In a moment that sounds like pure rock-and-roll mythology, Sam started to stir and opened his eyes. He later said he remembered hearing the song inside the coma and feeling as if it was pulling him back toward consciousness.

Was it the music that woke him up? From a scientific standpoint, it’s impossible to prove cause and effect. But neurologists do know that familiar voices and sounds can sometimes activate remaining brain circuits, especially in people with traumatic brain injury. Whether it was the Stones, the timing, or sheer luck, Carter’s story reminds us that even when doctors are pessimistic, the brain sometimes has surprise encores planned.

9. The Woman Who Thought It Was Still 1998: Sarah Thomson

In early 2012, Sarah Thomson, a 32-year-old mother in the U.K., developed a blood clot in her brain. She fell into a coma that lasted about 10 days. When she finally woke up, she was alert enough to talk – but her mind was stuck in the late 1990s.

She believed it was 1998, the Spice Girls were still together, and Michael Jackson was alive. More painfully, she had no idea who her younger children were, and she didn’t recognize her current husband, assuming he was a hospital worker. As far as her memory was concerned, she was a 19-year-old new mom still in a previous relationship.

Thomson’s case highlights how a coma can scramble memory in weirdly selective ways. Damage to certain brain regions can essentially “freeze” your autobiographical timeline at a specific point, preserving old memories while erasing years of life that came afterward. Over time, with rehabilitation and family support, she slowly readjusted, re-learned her life story, and even said she “fell in love again” with the husband she didn’t remember at first.

8. Waking Up Fluent in the “Wrong” Language

The idea of waking from a coma speaking a brand-new language is a popular internet myth. The reality is stranger and more nuanced. Several well-documented cases show people waking up and temporarily losing access to their native language while being able to speak a second one much more easily.

One widely reported example is Ben McMahon, an Australian man injured in a severe car accident in the 2010s. After about a week in an induced coma, he woke up speaking fluent Mandarin – a language he had only studied casually in school. English, his first language, was initially inaccessible to him. Over time, his English came back, but he kept his advanced Mandarin and even moved to China, where he studied, worked, and hosted Mandarin-language shows.

Similar patterns have been described in teenagers waking from head injuries speaking Spanish more easily than English, and in Michael Boatwright, an American who awoke in a California hospital insisting he was a Swede named “Johan Ek” and speaking Swedish far more comfortably than English.

Neurologists suspect that these cases are not magical new language downloads but changes in how the brain’s language networks are wired and accessed. When the dominant language system is disrupted by injury, the brain may temporarily route speech through less-damaged circuits associated with a second language. It looks miraculous from the outside, but underneath is a badly injured brain furiously rerouting traffic.

7. The Jazz Pianist and His “Coma Dreams”: Fred Hersch

Jazz pianist Fred Hersch is a legend in modern jazz, but his career almost ended in 2008. Living with HIV, he developed a severe infection and septic shock. His body began to fail, and doctors placed him in a medically induced coma for about two months. Many people in his condition never wake up; if they do, they often have major cognitive deficits.

Hersch eventually woke – weak, unable to eat normally, and struggling with his motor skills. For months he had to relearn basics like sitting up and walking. On top of that, he needed to retrain his fingers to play the piano, the instrument that had defined his life. Physical therapy and piano practice became intertwined: working on scales and pieces doubled as neurological rehab.

Astonishingly, he not only returned to performing but transformed his experience into art. He later created a 90-minute multimedia work called My Coma Dreams, based on vivid dreamlike experiences he recalled from the coma. His case challenges the idea that coma is just “blank nothingness.” Many survivors describe rich internal experiences, and Hersch’s music turned that hidden world into something audiences could literally hear.

6. The Teen Who Responded to One Country Song: Jarrett Carland

In 2009, 17-year-old Jarrett Carland was in a devastating car crash that killed his best friend and left him with severe brain injuries. Doctors predicted he would either die or remain in a vegetative state. His parents, unwilling to accept that prognosis, poured energy into his rehabilitation.

One part of that rehab was music – not soft lullabies, but the pounding fiddle lines of Charlie Daniels’ country classic “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” It was Jarrett’s favorite song, one he’d played obsessively before the accident. His parents played it again and again at his bedside in the rehab center.

Over months, small responses turned into something more. Jarrett started to move, then to react clearly to the song. After about four months in a coma, he began to emerge, eventually regaining enough awareness to meet Charlie Daniels himself at a music festival. Stories like this fit with research showing that personally meaningful music can sometimes rouse attention even in severely injured brains, possibly lighting up deep emotional and memory networks that are still intact.

5. Twenty-Seven Years Asleep: Munira Abdulla

Some coma stories are so long they stretch across generations. In 1991, Munira Abdulla, a 32-year-old mother in the United Arab Emirates, was driving home from picking up her 4-year-old son, Omar, when their car collided with a bus. She shielded him with her body and took the brunt of the impact. He survived with minor injuries; she suffered a severe brain injury and fell into a coma.

For years she received care in various facilities, often with minimal signs of responsiveness. Doctors repeatedly told her family that meaningful recovery was extremely unlikely. Her son, however, refused to give up. In 2017, she was transferred to a specialized clinic in Germany for intensive treatment.

In 2018, after 27 years, Munira suddenly spoke. When her son got into an argument in her hospital room, she reportedly tried to intervene, saying his name. Over time she regained the ability to recite prayers and answer simple questions, and she can now communicate basic needs.

Her case is incredibly rare and has been described by doctors as almost unique in modern medicine. It has also fueled debate: if recovery is sometimes possible after decades, how should families and health systems think about long-term care, quality of life, and the enormous cost of keeping someone alive that long?

4. The “Miracle Man” Cop: Gary Dockery

In September 1988, Tennessee police officer Gary Dockery responded to what seemed like a routine call about a domestic disturbance. When he approached the home, the man inside ambushed him and shot him in the head. Dockery survived but slipped into what doctors described as a persistent vegetative state.

For seven and a half years, he showed only small reflexive responses. His two young sons grew up visiting a father who never spoke or moved purposefully. Then, in February 1996, something astonishing happened. Dockery began talking – a lot. He recognized relatives, remembered camping trips, and asked about old friends. His first words to his sons were ordinary, fatherly questions, as if he’d simply skipped ahead in the calendar.

The media called him a “miracle man,” and his story raised hopes worldwide. Unfortunately, the talking lasted only about a day and a half. His speech faded again, and he remained severely disabled until his death the following year from a blood clot. Neurologists think Dockery’s brief return shows that even when a patient looks unresponsive, some memory networks can remain intact for years – but the damaged brain may not be able to sustain that fragile recovery.

3. “Okay”: Sarah Scantlin Breaks a 20-Year Silence

In 1984, 18-year-old college student Sarah Scantlin was walking to her car in Kansas when a drunk driver hit her and knocked her into the path of another vehicle. Her skull was crushed, and she suffered massive brain damage. She spent weeks in a coma, then years in a nursing facility, technically alive but barely responsive.

Her parents kept visiting, even as doctors warned them not to expect meaningful communication. Staff tried to coax responses by having her blink for “yes” and “no,” but for almost two decades she stayed mostly silent. Then, in the early 2000s, a persistent caregiver kept talking to her and encouraging her any time she made a sound.

One day, while the caregiver was reading to her and another patient interrupted, the caregiver said, “I’ll be there in a minute, okay?” Sarah suddenly repeated the word: “Okay.” It was her first spoken word in about 20 years. Over the next weeks she slowly added more words and was eventually able to speak short, halting sentences.

Even after she “woke up,” Sarah’s body remained severely disabled, and she continued to use a wheelchair and feeding tube. She believed she was still a teenager, emotionally and mentally. Her story reminds us that “waking up” is not a single moment but a long, uneven process – and that progress can come astonishingly late.

2. Nineteen Years Gone in an Instant: Terry Wallis

In 1984, 19-year-old Terry Wallis was in a pickup truck that plunged off a bridge into a creek in Arkansas. He survived but suffered massive brain injury and spent years classified as being in a permanent or near-permanent unconscious state. His family visited regularly, but there was little sign he understood them.

Then, in June 2003 – 19 years later – Terry suddenly spoke. His first word was “Mom,” followed by “Pepsi,” his favorite drink, and then “milk.” Within days, he was speaking in short sentences. Remarkably, he seemed to remember events from before the accident but had no concept that nearly two decades had passed.

Neurologists studying his case found signs that his brain had slowly rewired itself over the years, forming new connections around the damaged areas. His awakening had huge impact in neuroscience and bioethics. It showed that the brain remains more plastic – more capable of long-term reorganization – than previously thought, and it pushed doctors to be more cautious about declaring that someone in a disorder of consciousness will “never” improve.

1. Haleigh Poutre and the Life Support Debate

Not all coma stories are uplifting; some are deeply uncomfortable, especially when they collide with law and politics. Haleigh Poutre, born in 1994, grew up in Massachusetts in a home marked by serious abuse. By 2005, state authorities had received multiple reports about her condition. In September of that year, at age 11, she was rushed to the hospital with a catastrophic brain injury and fell into a coma.

Doctors described her as being in a vegetative state and argued that she was “virtually brain dead.” The state, now her guardian, went to court seeking permission to remove her from life support. After legal battles, the state’s highest court agreed that life support could be withdrawn.

Then, just as the process to remove life support was about to begin, Haleigh started to respond. She was able to track objects with her eyes and follow simple commands. In the following months, she improved enough to be transferred to a rehab center. She remained profoundly disabled and communicates mostly through assistive devices, but she was clearly conscious.

Her case forced a painful reckoning. How certain can doctors really be about prognosis in severe brain injury? When, if ever, is it appropriate to withdraw life support from a child? Haleigh’s survival doesn’t mean every case is “just around the corner from a miracle,” but it does highlight the ethical landmines in making life-and-death decisions based on imperfect knowledge of the injured brain.

What These Coma Stories Teach Us About Hope and the Brain

Taken together, these stories point to a few big themes:

• The brain is incredibly complex and unpredictable. Neurologists can estimate odds, but outliers like Munira Abdulla or Terry Wallis show that long-term plasticity and slow reorganization sometimes produce surprising recoveries.
• “Waking up” is rarely a Hollywood moment. Most survivors go through stages – coma, minimally conscious state, partial recovery – with months or years of therapy. Often the first “awakening” is just a small change: a word, a blink, a hand squeeze.
• Families matter. Nearly all of these cases involve relatives who refused to give up: playing favorite songs, advocating for rehab, or fighting legal battles on the patient’s behalf.
• Recovery almost always comes with lasting disability. Many survivors use wheelchairs, have cognitive issues, or need lifelong care. The miracle is not that they become “good as new,” but that they regain any conscious life at all.
• These are exceptions, not guarantees. For every dramatic awakening, there are many families who never get that moment. Ethically, doctors must balance honest realism with compassion and hope.

The bottom line: coma stories can inspire, but they should never be used to guilt or pressure families who are facing impossible decisions. Each case is unique, and medical teams have to consider the cause of the coma, the amount of brain damage, and the patient’s own wishes whenever they are known.

What Waking Up From a Coma Really Feels Like: Experiences and Reflections

Beyond the headlines, what is it actually like to wake up from a coma? While every story is different, first-person accounts and caregiver reports reveal some striking patterns.

Many survivors say that “waking up” wasn’t a single bright moment but a slow fade-in, like a dimmer switch being nudged up over days or weeks. Some remember brief flashes – a nurse’s voice, a family member crying, the smell of disinfectant – long before they were officially considered conscious. Others recall vivid dreams or hallucinations, sometimes terrifying, sometimes oddly mundane. These internal experiences can mix ICU noises, memories, and pain medications into surreal narratives that feel as real as waking life.

One common theme is profound confusion about time. People who were under for two weeks sometimes guess they were gone for a day or two. Those who spent months in a coma may wake up feeling as if only a brief nap has passed. When they’re told the actual date – and what has happened in the meantime – the emotional impact can be huge. Imagine going to sleep in 2003 and waking to smartphones, streaming services, and grown children who were toddlers the last time you saw them.

There’s also the physical shock. Long periods in bed lead to muscle wasting; even lifting an arm or sitting up can feel like running a marathon. Survivors describe feeling “trapped” in a body that no longer obeys them. On top of that, tubes, monitors, and ventilators can make early awakenings feel frightening and claustrophobic. It’s not uncommon for newly conscious patients to panic or lash out until staff and family members can reassure them and explain what’s happening.

Emotionally, waking from a coma can be a roller coaster:

• Grief and loss: Some people discover that loved ones have died during their coma, or that careers, relationships, and homes are gone. They’re forced to grieve events they never experienced consciously.
• Survivor’s guilt: If other people were injured or killed in the same accident, survivors may wrestle with “why me?” questions for years.
• Identity shock: When you’ve missed years of your own life, your sense of self may feel outdated. You might feel like a young adult in a middle-aged body with a medical chart a few inches thick.
• Intense gratitude: Over time, many survivors describe a deep appreciation for small things – sunlight through a window, a favorite drink, a chance to walk across a room – because they know how close they came to losing them forever.

Families and caregivers go through their own emotional journey. For weeks or months, they may talk to someone who doesn’t respond, wondering if anything is getting through. That uncertainty can be brutal. If their loved one does wake up, the joy is often mixed with anxiety about long-term care, finances, and how much recovery is realistically possible.

Rehabilitation is where the real work begins. Speech therapists help patients relearn words and swallowing. Physical and occupational therapists rebuild basic skills like standing, dressing, and using a fork. Neuropsychologists help with memory, attention, and mood. Progress is rarely smooth; it can feel like one step forward, two steps back. But even partial gains – a new word, a few independent steps, the ability to use a communication device – can be life-changing victories.

When you look at stories like Sam Carter, Terry Wallis, or Munira Abdulla through this lens, they are less about sudden miracles and more about long, exhausting, deeply human efforts: the brain fighting to rewire itself, families refusing to let go, and medical teams learning as they go. The headline might focus on the instant someone opens their eyes, but the real story stretches across years of uncertainty, work, and love.

If there is one thread connecting these “amazing stories of people who woke up from comas,” it’s this: consciousness is more resilient, and more mysterious, than we once believed. The brain can be badly injured and yet hold onto fragments of self that wait, silently, for the right combination of time, care, and luck to find their way back to the surface.

Sources: Listverse feature on coma awakenings; coverage of Munira Abdulla’s 27-year coma and recovery; reporting on Terry Wallis’s 19-year recovery and its scientific impact; articles on Gary Dockery’s brief awakening after seven years in a coma; coverage of Sarah Scantlin’s return to speech after nearly 20 years; reporting on Haleigh Poutre and life-support debates in Massachusetts; features on Fred Hersch’s AIDS-related coma and My Coma Dreams; stories about music-linked awakenings, including Sam Carter and Jarrett Carland; articles on language changes after coma in Ben McMahon and Michael Boatwright; collections of coma survivor experiences.