LAKIN, Kansas (KSN) -- Last summer, a Kansas boy suddenly "woke up" from a near-comatose condition -- what some consider a miracle. Now, five months later, his recovery continues to amaze his family and doctors.
Bradley Reimer was 10 when he suffered severe brain trauma in a car accident near Lakin that killed his mother. For 18 months, he sat in a wheelchair at a pediatric hospital near Oklahoma City, barely moving or making a sound.
"It was like you knew something was going on inside, but he didn't show any expression," said Camilla Dadulo, a therapist at Bethany Children's Center.
Suddenly, last May, something extraordinary happened.
"He just started saying the colors of things, labeling things, and I was like, 'wait a minute, this isn't just a random firing in his brain. This is something real,'" said Dadulo.
Bradley also began using his arms and legs again, and within three months, left the hospital and moved into his aunt's house in Lakin.
"He went from eating out of a feeding tube to eating normal," said Angela Reimer, Bradley's aunt.
And the boy, once wheelchair bound, is now walking, even kicking a ball.
"Oh he's done amazing. It's been fun to see," said Drew Miller, Bradley's doctor.
But even the doctors can't fully explain it. Because an injured brain takes so long to heal and rewire itself, most patients in a vegetative state as long as Bradley, never recover. Why he suddenly woke up is a mystery.
"There's nothing that can quite medically justify it," said Miller.
Bradley's quickly making up for lost time, going to school and learning math, writing his own name, and reading.
"He loves to read," said Sarah Scott, Bradley's special education teacher. "We even have to stop in the hallways to read the posters."
He's taking it all in so fast, his teachers believe Bradley never really lost it.
"Some of the concepts we work on, he has in his long-term memory, and when we start working on them, it brings it out," said Scott.
Bradley also has a new interest.
"The weather channel is his favorite thing," said Angela Reimer. "He'll talk about the weather constantly if you let him."
More proof that his mind, once dormant, is now in high gear.
"The changes have been great," said Scott. "I mean he changes almost on a daily basis."
So there's no telling how far Bradley will go in the future, but like the New Year, it looks promising.
