MOUNTAIN VIEW, Arkansas - Doctors say that Terry Wallis, 42, who has been comatose in a rehabilitation center since suffering a severe brain injury in a car crash when he was 19, regained speech and movement because his brain spontaneously rewired itself by growing tiny new nerve connections to replace the ones sheared apart in the accident.
Wallis' doctors are even more astounded that while he was in a coma, his brain also spontaneously rewired a bathroom exhaust fan that hadn't worked for five years.
"It's a miracle," said Wallis' nurse Rosacea Lugosi. "We had completely given up on that fan." Nurse Lugosi said that she and the rest of the staff plan to bring in all their broken appliances and set them next to Wallis' bed.
The story of how Wallis' brain rewired itself will be featured in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association. The story of how Wallis' brain rewired the exhaust fan will be featured in the next issue of Popular Mechanics.
