LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -
A
pregnant woman who spent nearly a month in a coma stunned
doctors when she awakened unexpectedly three days after a priest
gave her last rites, her doctor said Thursday.
Maria Lopez has since given birth to twins and could be on her
way to a full recovery, John Frazee, a vascular neurosurgeon at
the University of California Medical Center, told Reuters.
He said the case was "just a miracle.''
Frazee said Lopez slipped into a coma April 25 after complaining
about headaches and nausea. Doctors found that a previously
undiagnosed condition called an arteriovenous malformation had
caused arteries in her brain to rupture.
After three weeks with no change in her condition, Frazee said,
he advised her family to withdraw life support.
But as a priest prepared to give her last rites and a nurse
suctioned her breathing tube, Frazee said, Lopez coughed and
moved slightly.
While doctors saw those actions as a reflex, Frazee said, family
members were convinced that she was preparing to emerge from the
coma and asked that she be kept on life support. Several days
later, Frazee said, Lopez stunned him by waking from her coma
and responding to his commands. She slipped back into a coma
several days later, then awoke again, apparently for good, and
gave birth to healthy twins.
"Whether that initial cough was a sign from God I don't know,
but it certainly saved her life, because it convinced her family
to leave her on life-support,'' Frazee said.
The doctor said he could find no medical explanation for her
recovery, which he would have considered impossible given the
devastating nature of her brain injury.
"It's just a miracle,'' he said. "In 17 years this is the first
patient I've ever had wake up from a coma under these
conditions.''
Frazee said Lopez has continued to make "remarkable'' progress
toward recovery and could be released to a rehabilitation
facility as early as Monday.
