Labor of love

A devoted wife's struggle to coax her comatose, paralyzed husband back to full strength has paid off after 10 years.

The man, Wang Xiangyang, a Nanjing resident and factory worker, was badly injured in 1998 while trying to break up a fight between two bosses, one of whom accidentally stabbed him in the neck with scissors. Wang sustained a 10-centimeter-deep wound that partially paralyzed him and put him in a coma.

His wife, Deng Qian, spent a total of 120,000 yuan ($17,560) – 50,000 of which was borrowed from relatives – on an operation that reportedly saved his life but left him in a coma as a virtual vegetable, bedridden at home.

Desperate to revive him, Deng took the advice of a senior doctor who suggested that if she whispered sweet memories to Wang that he might subconsciously hear her and awaken.

With tears often sliding down her cheeks, she began recalling intimate moments from their life together – everything from the birth of their son to Wang's fondness for her sweet potato porridge on a cold winter day.

First miracle
Her painful persistence first paid off on Feburary 24, 1999 when her napping head bumped her husband' s and she saw his mouth and eyelids move. Soon his eyes opened though he couldn't speak. Doctors were called for a check and she was told she'd created a miracle, but Deng was warned about the high odds of Wang's permanent paralysis.

Second miracle
Deng tried whatever she could to hasten his full recovery, cooking chicken soup or porridge, serving him having dinner and massaging his immobile feet.

She also had a used bicycle redesigned into a wheelchair and wheeled him outside for fresh air.

Under her care, Wang finally uttered some broken words one day, “I'm sorry.” With tears in her eyes, Deng, between sobs, told him, “I'm okay as long as you can recover. Our children are waiting for the day you can take them to the park.”

Third miracle
Fortune favored the disaster-stricken family a third time in 2004 when one day he fell to the floor while she was struggling to move him into the wheelchair. Deng was dumbfounded to see him pulling himself up and five years later her therapy has paid off, with her husband now almost completely able to fend for himself.

Nanjing Daily