Waking up is more than enough reason for a comatose person and their loved ones to be happy.

Perpetual Uke, a rheumatology consultant at Birmingham City Hospital in the United Kingdom, got another surprise when she finally woke up from a medically induced coma at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in March 2020. She was pregnant at the time doctors put her to sleep while intubated and fighting a Covid-19 infection.

After weeks in the ICU, she woke up and saw her twin babies — she had given birth by C-section while in a coma. More amazing was that Palmer, a girl, and Pascal, a boy, survived despite their mother’s sickness and their being prematurely born on 10 April at just 26 weeks old, Sky News reported.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Flewellen’s coma was more severe than Uke’s. Flewellen of Michigan, USA figured in a road crash after driving her children to school on 25 September 2017. The then 35-year-old mother of three was put on life support and placed in a medically induced coma.

Flewellen’s mother, Peggy Means, took care of her comatose daughter while working as a garment sewer. The caregiving was long and painstaking, but Means persevered.

At every visit, Means talked to Flewellen about her children despite her being unresponsive. She cleaned her and put her in a wheelchair. The mother worked to get her daughter health insurance coverage and multiple hospital transfers.

According to Dr. Ralph Wang, a physiatrist who cared for Flewellen at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Grand Rapids, only two to three percent of patients come out of their coma, ABC News reported.

In August 2022, Flewellen laughed at a joke Means told. It signaled the start of her recovery.

From brief responses, she gestured to answer questions and then made small sounds. Last July, less than a year after waking up from a five-year coma, Flewellen, now 41, was brought home with her mother continuing to help her regain her speech and mobility.

Patient recovery from a long-term coma does not happen that often, experts say. Making Flewellen’s case even more unique was that she not only woke up but is now alert and regaining skills like talking, Wang said, according to ABC News.