Michigan mom wakes up from FIVE-YEAR coma doctors thought she would never recover from after horror car crash to attend her son’s high school senior night – as she begins journey to walk again
A Michigan mother has woken up from a five-year coma after a catastrophic car accident – just in time to attend her son's evening football game.
Jennifer Flewellen, 41, of Niles, Michigan, fell into a coma after a devastating car accident on September 25, 2017.
Flewellen was driving on the M139 in Niles when she crossed the center line, crossed into the eastbound lanes and collided with a utility pole on the side of the road.
She was found unconscious at the scene and was rushed by ambulance to Lakeland Hospital, where doctors believed she would never wake from her coma.
But five years later, on August 25, 2022, she miraculously regained consciousness in the hospital and even managed to make it to her son Julian's football game at Niles High School in October.
Jennifer's mother, Peggy Means (left), has been by her side throughout the entire ordeal
Flewellen with her three sons before her devastating accident in September 2017
“No one expected her to wake up,” said Jennifer's mother, Peggy Means told WNDU.
“We've been told all along that she's starved of oxygen and that she'll never wake up because of the brain damage, but you never say never.”
Sara Macon, a lifelong friend of Jenn's, said, “Just having the opportunity to have her here to support him and let everyone know that she's doing well and she's getting better and better, and we're just still in shock that it's even possible for her to be here.
“I think the driving force is that she was able to watch her kids. But actually her mother was with her.
'Her mother has been a wonderful caregiver and has been with her every day since her accident. She's determined to get her home, and after six years, she's finally home again.”
Means her daughter let her sons play football at a young age. “She said, 'I don't want my children on the street. “I want them in the sport and she really pushed them, and she was a big shouter.
“Everyone who knew Jenn, she was very loud. They (her children) always said; I couldn't even hear my coach, Mom; you were louder than the coach.”
Flewellen has been at Memorial Hospital for the past few weeks, recovering from successful surgery.
“We were told all the time that she is starved of oxygen and that she will never wake up because of the brain damage, but you never say never,” Means told local news
Flewellen with her son Julian (right) during his senior night football game in October
“I think the driving force is that she was able to watch her kids,” said friend Sara Macon
Lifelong friends Sarah Macon and Cassie Lee joined Flewellen at the football game
Although the road to recovery has included multiple hospitals in several states, Flewellen will soon move to Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Grand Rapids where she will begin the process of learning to walk again.
“She was accepted to go to Mary Free Bed,” Means said.
'She couldn't get the therapy back [when she first woke up] then because she wasn't ready yet.
“I knew it was three hours a day, so I said we weren't going to try too quickly because you have to be ready, but she's ready now.”
“Any achievement, I mean, to be able to sit independently, you know, little things that we all take for granted,” Means explained.
She added: “They will help with her speech. It's frustrating for her, and it would be for all of us; you want to be able to communicate with people. So the ultimate goal is walking, with so many more goals in between.
“The publicity helped, you know, people reached out and became more aware of her, and I already knew she was a miracle, but to share it with other people and know that miracles do come true; I mean, it really is.”