“Every Dream Came True.” Joke Wakes Mom Up From 5-Year Coma.

We recently started rating some of our stories on how many tissues you need to get from start to finish. The amazing return of this Niles, Michigan, mom from an almost five-year coma has a five-tissue rating! They’ll be happy and proud tears, but not sad tears. On September 25, 2017, Jennifer Flewellen had a car accident. She had just dropped her three boys at school and was headed to work. She told her husband on the phone that she was feeling light-headed.

In a flash, her entire life changed, leaving her in a coma with severe brain trauma. OK, maybe some sad tears here, but this is far from the end of this incredible tale. Before the accident, Jen was an active mom with three young boys.

Jennifer was unconscious when the paramedics extracted her from the vehicle. Nobody expected her to regain consciousness. Doctors prepared the family, telling them that they didn’t expect Jen to wake up from the coma. The family, and especially Jen’s mom, Peggy Means, never gave up. Peggy visited Jen almost daily. She talked to her daughter, told jokes, and cared for her needs. The entire time, Jen seemed non-responsive until the day Peggy told a joke, and Jen laughed!

The sound was so strange to Peggy; it frightened her initially, but she quickly realized that her daughter was awake. Four years and eleven months after the accident. Grabbing her phone, Peggy recorded the unbelievable moment to send to her family. Everyone was amazed, including Jen’s doctors. That was on August 25, 2022. Jen had been locked inside herself for almost five years.

Recovery is slow, but Jen has already made more progress than her doctors had anticipated. She is able to communicate with nods and is relearning speech. And her smile tells the world she is ready to live again. Physical therapists continue to work with her on movement to restore strength and mobility to her limbs.

While their mom was in the coma, her three children grew up. Her youngest, Julian, was 11 when the accident happened. He is now a senior in high school and a star on the Niles High School Football team. Watching her boys play sports had always been a passion of Jen’s. This year, for the first time since he was 11, she got to watch Julian play football from the sidelines. It was his Senior Night, and he played a phenomenal game!

After missing five years of watching her boys grow, Jen tries to make up for that lost time. Her boys and their grandma Peggy are just happy to have her back. She also has a granddaughter now! The family is struggling now that their mom is out of the coma. They want to have her at home, but they need some assistance to modify the house to accommodate Jen’s limited mobility and other issues.

Jen’s uncle Kyle Means (Peggy’s brother) started a GoFundMe for the family. The modest request includes funding to modify a bathroom and to obtain a mobility van. Jennifer is at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital for now. Helping the family modify a bathroom and obtain a mobility van will allow them to bring her home.

Jen’s mom, Peggy, still visits almost daily. She is retired and spends as much time as possible with her daughter. The three boys, Skylar (21), Daeton (19), and Julian (17), visit as often as they can. The family is hopeful that now that Jen is no longer in a coma, their mom can concentrate on rebuilding her life. They intend to work together as a family to make that happen.

If you enjoyed reading about how this amazing mom woke from a coma, please share. When a family has hope, there is no stopping the miracles that can occur. We have witnessed how the power of a mom’s love can withstand the ravages of a coma.

You can find the source of this story’s featured image here and here.