‘Miracle’ Mom Wakes from 5-Year Coma Thanks to Joke — Now She’s Making Up for Lost Time with Sons (Exclusive)

It’s a miracle — and it all started with a joke.

As Jennifer Flewellen of Niles, Michigan, lay motionless in a hospital bed last year, stuck in a nearly five-year coma caused by a car accident, her mother, Peggy Means, told her a joke. Then the impossible happened: Flewellen (41) laughed.

“When she woke up, I was scared at first because she was laughing, which she never does,” Means tells PEOPLE. “Every dream has come true. Today is the day I said, ‘That door that was closed, that kept us apart, just opened. We’re back.'”

The August 2022 breakthrough was just the first step in a long battle for Flewellen, who is working hard to regain speech and mobility after being in a cocooned state where time stood still while her brain slowly recovered.

“She woke up, but not completely. She couldn’t speak, but she was nodding her head,” says Means, 60. “At first, she would still sleep a lot, but as the months went by, she would get stronger and more alert.”

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“This is so rare,” Dr. Ralph Wang, her doctor at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Michigan, tells PEOPLE. “Not only awakening, but also progress. Maybe 1-3% of patients wake up and make that much progress.”

The fiery mom accomplished another big goal in October when she was able to participate in a prom night football celebration with youngest son Julian, 17, at the Niles High School football game.

“She was my biggest supporter,” says Julian, who was 11 years old when his mom fell into a coma. “Having my biggest fan come back from the sideline and cheer me on, it was an unreal moment.”

Jennifer Means with her friend Sara Macon and sons, left to right, Skylar, Julian and Daeton.

Peggy means

After news broke about her attending her son’s soccer game, Flewellen was able to secure additional therapy through Mary Free Bed, a local rehabilitation hospital.

In a PEOPLE video interview with her mom from a rehab hospital, an animated Flewellen, who can only string a few words together, nods yes and no to questions and sits almost upright in a portable hospital bed.

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Flewellen’s nightmare-turned-miracle began on a typical morning on Monday, September 25, 2017. Then a 35-year-old wife and mother of three boys in the small town of Niles, Flewellen had just dropped her three sons off at school and went to work at Bittersweet Pet Resorts.

It was the last normal morning he would have. At 8:23 a.m., it struck a utility pole, according to a report by local radio station WSJM. (Neither speed nor alcohol appeared to be factors in the crash that left her unresponsive.)

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Jennifer Flewellen at son Julian’s high school varsity football game with (from left) brother Kyle, friend Cassie Lee, son Julian and mom Peggy Means.

Peggy means

Flewellen remained in a coma for almost five years, during which time her mum Peggy – who had only recently retired from work – was by her side, visiting almost every day in the hope that her daughter would one day respond.

When it finally happened, Means captured the moment and quickly sent the video to family and friends. The next day, Julian and his brothers went to the hospital.

“I told her I was Juju and her eyes lit up like, ‘Wow, that’s my Juju bean,’” Julian says, noting his nickname. “But when she actually found out our ages and things like that, it broke her heart. She started crying.”

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Julian says it wasn’t easy for his mom to learn he was a junior and that his brothers Skylar, now 21, and Daeton, 19, had already graduated from high school.

“We talked about the time she missed and we try not to because it upsets her,” says Julian. “But my grandmother always tells her, ‘You can’t sit here and be sad because being sad won’t make you move forward.'”

Christmas when Jenn Flewellen’s boys were young.

Peggy means

Although Flewellen was unaware of her mom’s near-daily visits, Means says that during her daughter’s recovery, she played her an audio book about the woman who was in a coma and described it as a euphoric, peaceful and calming place.

“Jenn cried and said she felt that way, so that was nice to know,” Means says. “Sometimes I wanted to believe she knew I was there, but something told me this was what I had to do.”

At first, most friends and family didn’t believe Means when she said her daughter had come out of a coma. Worse, she says, were hospital staff who didn’t think Flewellen would make much progress after simply waking up.

“I asked for therapy and they thought I was crazy, but she got a speech therapist,” says the persistent mom. “You have to be a strong advocate,” she adds.

Jenn Flewellen with her cat Huey.

Peggy means

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At first Flewellen couldn’t make a sound, but with the help of a small whistle she managed to raise the air.

Next were the vowels. Last Christmas, while her daughter was still living in the hospital, Means gave Flewell a kitten named Huey “because she was a vowel,” Means says with a smile as her daughter grins as well.

This is just the beginning of Flewellen’s new life after the coma. Although she still needs help with “almost everything,” Dr. Wang says she’s already exceeded expectations.

Jennifer Flewellen exercises on a bicycle at the Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital.

Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation

“If he can take a few steps, feed himself and communicate more, those would be big wins,” says Wang. “Both she and her mom are wonderfully driven. In six months, if she was 10 before, if we can get her to four or five. That would be amazing.”

Means believes her daughter will soon be walking and catching up with her boys.

When told she looks ready to take on the world, Flewellen replies, “I am.”

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Source: HIS Education