A woman who suffered a catastrophic brain injury and fell into a coma when her car collided with a school bus in the United Arab Emirates has woken up for the first time in almost three decades.
Munira Abdulla was involved in the horrific road accident in 1991, having picked up her son Omar, 4, from school in the city of Al Ain.
Omar escaped with just a bruise to his head, but his mother, who was 32 at the time, suffered such serious damage that doctors doubted she would ever open her eyes again.
Twenty-seven years on, she regained consciousness in a German hospital room and her family have now spoken for the first time about her ordeal and miraculous recovery.
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Speaking to UAE newspaper The National, Omar, now 32, said: “I never gave up on her because I always had a feeling that one day she will wake up.”
Ms Abdulla has been able to answer questions since waking up and has recited verses from the Quran.
She is continuing to receive treatment in Abu Dhabi, having been transferred to a number of different hospitals in various countries since the accident, including one in London.
According to The National, the family later received a state grant from the crown prince court to send her to Germany for treatment, and she was moved there in April 2017.
Her neurologist at Schoen Clinic near Munich, Dr Ahmad Ryll, told the paper of her recovery: “For years I have dreamt of this moment, and my name was the first word she said.”
Ms Abdulla is said to be becoming more responsive all the time, and is now capable of communicating with friends and family “in a very reasonable manner, especially in familiar situations”.
Recoveries like hers are extremely rare, with few cases of people regaining consciousness after years in a coma.
Among the most remarkable is Terry Wallis, who was 19 when a car he was travelling in plunged into a creek in southern Arkansas in July 1984.
He was left in a coma and did not wake up until June 2003 – thus missing the entire presidencies of George HW Bush and Bill Clinton.
