A man awoke from a coma after 19 years, turned to his mother who was at his bedside, and said: 'Mum.' Terry Wallis, 39, then uttered the word 'Pepsi', followed by 'milk'.

Mr Wallis was 19 and had just celebrated the birth of his daughter when, on Friday 13 July 1984, the truck he was travelling in slewed through a road barrier and plunged 25ft into a creek. It was 24 hours before the truck was found. He was left paralyzed from the neck down and in a coma. Despite doctors giving him little chance of regaining consciousness, Mr Wallis's parents and his wife Sandi put him in a rehabilitation centre. Every other weekend they drove him to their farm 26 miles away, where they talked to him in the belief that familiar surroundings might restore him back to consciousness. Four weeks ago, Mrs Wallis went to the centre for what she believed would be a typical visit. It was then when her son opened his eyes and spoke. Mr Wallis, from Arkansas, is talking freely and getting to know his daughter, Amber, who is now 19.

The brain damage he suffered in the accident has left him with poor short term memory, and, perhaps inevitably, he remains stuck in 1984. When asked by his mother who the president was, he replied: 'Ronald Reagan.'

A peculiar fact: he wrecked on Friday the 13th and 19 years later he started talking on Friday the 13th.