Danielle Josey Davis was told her comatose husband had little chance of living after a motorcycle accident, but she stood by him and now he’s learning to walk again.
Here is Danielle Josey Davis and her husband, Matt.
Almost four years ago – and seven months after the pair married – a motorcycle accident left him on life support and in a coma, according to ABC News.
The broadcaster reported that doctors told Danielle to let him die because there was a 90% chance he would never wake up,
"They said that if it was them they would pull the plug – that's what they would want their family to do," she told ABC News.
But she chose to keep him on life support and eventually brought Matt back to her mother's house. According to ABC News, she told her mother: "If he's going to be a body in a bed, let's give him something to look at."
She started tracking his progress on her website. Her first update, in July 2011, reads: "Recently, Matt began to slightly move different limbs, mostly his left arm and leg. A few days ago, Matt began to open his eyes. He is not yet awake, but he blinks his eyes often. This is where we are now."
Three months after the accident, he woke up.
She cared for Matt 24 hours a day for those three months, during which time, according to Cosmopolitan, she "changed his feeding tube, physically turned him over in bed to prevent bedsores, and gave him sponge baths and his 20 medications every single day."
Danielle told ABC News she knew his personality was intact when he was asked what food he wanted and replied with his favourite, a "buffalo chicken wrap from Cheddar's" – she told the broadcaster: "We all whipped around because we all knew what he said."
Matt doesn't remember Danielle from before the 2011 accident.
But earlier this month, she wrote about how Matt has just taken his first steps by himself in almost four years: "Matt just knew he could and needed to do it. He said baby, can you stand in front of me for a second. I knew what he wanted and foolishly told him he wouldn’t be able to do it because he just can’t right now. I hate to see him disappointed. I stood there and he did it!!"