Wallis had a car accident in Arkansas with a friend in July 1984, six weeks after the birth of his daughter, Amber, according to obituaries at Roller Funeral Homes. The car crashed into a creek and the two were found just the next day under a bridge, the Associated Press reported in 2003. Wallis’s friend was killed while Wallis was in a coma. The accident had left him quadriplegic. Wallis remained in a coma for 19 years, until June 12, 2003, when we said “mom,” his first word since he was in a coma. After regaining consciousness, Wallis was able to say “whatever he wanted to say,” according to Alessha Badgley, social director of the Stone County Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The media and medical care that then surrounded Wallis led to him being called “The Man Who Sleeped for 19 Years.” Terry Wallis, at his parents’ home in Stone County Ark. Saturday, July 1, 2006. The obituary said Wallis’s mother, Angili, and the other family “cared for him relentlessly during and after the coma.” The family took him home alternately on weekends for years, as doctors believed it would help his waking period, as they also believed it was 1984 when he regained consciousness. His mother died in 2018. The obituary said Wallis enjoyed eating “anything at all times and enjoyed drinking Pepsi”. He died March 29 in Big Flat, Arkansas. “Terry was a great teaser and he liked to tease his sister. His wonderful sense of humor will be greatly missed by his family,” the obituary wrote. Wallis was survived by his father, siblings, daughter and three grandchildren. Follow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter @jordan_mendoza5. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Terry Wallis of Arkansas dies at 57 after 19 years in coma
