A mom of three who survived a car crash and spent five years in a coma has woken up laughing at one of her mom’s jokes, shocking her doctors and earning herself the chance to reconnect with her beloved sons.
On the fateful morning of Sept. 25, 2017, Jennifer Flewellen of Niles, Michigan, was driving to work at Bittersweet Pet Resorts after dropping her sons at school, when her vehicle collided with a utility pole. During Ms. Flewellen’s almost five years in the hospital, her mom, 60-year-old Peggy Means, visited her bedside every day, hoping for change.
Incredibly, Ms. Flewellen woke up in August 2022, laughing at a joke told by her mom. Eighteen months later, Ms. Flewellen, 41, is in rehabilitation for speech and mobility, and her mom recalls the incredible moment that her daughter came back like it was yesterday.
Ms. Means sent a video of the miraculous moment to family and friends. The next day, Ms. Flewellen’s three sons, Skylar, 21, Daeton, 19, and Julian, 17, went to the hospital to see their mom. It was bittersweet.
“I told her I was Juju and her eyes lit up, like, ‘Wow, it’s my Juju bean!’ But when she actually found out our ages and things like that, it broke her heart. She started to cry,” Julian told People.
Ms. Flewellen could nod and emote but not yet speak. Her physician, Dr. Ralph Wang, told the news outlet that her waking was “so rare,” claiming that only 1 to 2 percent of coma patients “wake up and make progress this far out.”
As the months went on, Ms. Flewellen slept a lot and gradually gained strength. Her mother advocated for speech therapy, even though some hospital staffers thought she was “crazy.” They allegedly doubted Ms. Flewellen would make progress at first, according to the report.
But the mom of three was determined, first experimenting with blowing air, then with whistling, then vowel sounds. Ms. Means gifted her daughter a kitten named Huey to help her practice her vowels. By October 2023, Ms. Flewellen was ready for a major milestone: attending a Niles High School football game to watch her youngest son, Julian, play.
“She was my biggest supporter,” Julian told People. “So to have my biggest supporter back on the sidelines, cheering me on, it was a surreal moment. ... We’ve talked about the time that she’s missed, and we try not to, because it makes her upset. But my grandma always tells her, ‘You can’t sit here and be sad, because being sad is not going to get you moving forward.’”
Ms. Flewellen’s goals are to relearn speech and regain the ability to feed herself and sit up unassisted—with her ultimate goal being to walk again.
“Jenn’s positivity and resilience have been the shining stars in her remarkable recovery journey at Mary Free Bed,” they wrote. “Congratulations, Jenn! Your journey is a true celebration of resilience!”
