Thanksgiving Miracle: Man Shot In Head Wakes From Month-Long Coma

When it comes to holiday miracles, Christmas seems to get the lion’s share in pop culture. But for the family of Benjamin Pessah, Thanksgiving 2012 came with a miracle they will be thankful for for years to come as Pessah woke from a month-long coma just days before.

Benjamin Pessah was walking home from a Halloween party just before Halloween on Oct. 28 when a stranger inappropriately touched his girlfriend. He intervened, and the stranger shot him in the head. His family was told he didn’t have much of a chance. Californiality reports that doctors initially did not want to operate, finding Pessah’s brain to be too badly damaged. Since he was only 21-years-old, however, doctors went ahead with the procedure but still gave Pessah only a 25 percent chance at survival. It seemed he would need a miracle.

ABCNews Blogs reports Pessah was put into a medically induced coma where he remained for nearly a month. Just days before Thanksgiving, with his mom in the room, he awoke and faintly said, “Hi mom.” On Thanksgiving Day most families gathered around a table with a turkey and all the fixings, but Pessah was surrounded by his family in a California hospital room. With his parents, three brothers and hospital staff present, Pessah took his first steps since being shot in the head, causing the room to erupt in applause at the Thanksgiving miracle.

“Right now I couldn’t be more happy,” Nick Pessah, Benjamin’s older brother, said. “It’s been an emotional rollercoaster. I’ve been crying, I’ve been happy. He’s beaten all of his odds so I couldn’t have asked for a better Thanksgiving.”