DENIED HER RIGHTS:

Speedy coma recovery defies grim outlook: `I THINK WE'RE WATCHING A MIRACLE,' HUSBAND SAYS (Connie Skipitares, 7/28/04, San Jose Mercury News)

At first there was a faint smile and the gentle squeeze of a hand. Loved ones didn't dare to believe that Tara Eichinger Berendes might be coming out of the coma she had been in since a head-on car crash in Utah on June 1.

But then she began whispering little words to her husband, Josh.

On Tuesday, the 20-year-old newlywed continued to stun doctors and those around her when, with the help of physical therapists at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, she briefly stood on her own.

That capped what friends and relatives are calling a miraculous turn of events during the past several days.

Lucky she didn't have one of those husbands with an itchy trigger finger.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 28, 2004 1:58 PM