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H.S. Basketball Coach Awakens From Persistent Vegetative State

Posted: 3:49 pm EST April 1, 2005Updated: 4:43 pm EST April 1, 2005

He's been in a persistent vegetative state for more than a month, but a popular high school basketball coach has awakened.

Bishop Moore coach Rob Graham, 33, collapsed of a heart attack in February during a championship game. When a police officer tried to resuscitate him with a portable defibrillator, the device failed and it took another 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

Doctors say they had slim hopes he'd survive. But, on Good Friday, he suddenly showed signs of recovery.

"Nurses were coming from all over, and they started getting him to follow thumbs up and sticking his tongue out and then he turned to the picture of his girls and smiled, and I'm crying with him because I can't believe it. It was a miracle," said Rob's wife Tammy.

On a scale of one to ten, with ten being full mental capability, doctors say Rob still rates about a three or four, but with him now responding to family members and sitting up in a wheelchair, they say they are hopeful.

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