Poge Six

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Friday, June 20, 1"975

Texas man wakes up after eight years

SEYMOUR, Tex. (A) - Gene
Tipps woke up last month,
yawned, looked around and dis-
covered the hippie movement
with its flower children was
gone.
The Vietnam war was over.
HIS old girl friends had long
since married and had children.
He was looking for flattop
haircuts and 25-cent gas.
"Last thing I remember is
that we were all kids and sin-
gle. I know I'm 28, but to me,
I'm still 20," says Tipps who
"awoke" after eight years of al-
most constant sleeping.
TIPPS was critically injured

in a one-car accident May 21,
1967. He was suffering from
shock and acute swelling of the
brain associated with trauma.
Doctors .held little hope of re-
covery.
He was comatose for three
weeks following the accident but
after he came out of the coma
he suffered from complete am-
nesia.
Dr. C. M. Randal, who per-
formed a routine gall bladder
operation on Tipps May 16,
said Tipps lapsed into a void
following the accident and was
unresponsive and uncoopera-
tive.
"ALL he wanted to do was

sleep," says Randal - abput
17 hours a day.
Tipps stayed in the hospital
for two months following the car
accident and was then sent
home for treatment.
"We would get him up and
feed him and no matter what
we did, he would go lay down
and go to sleep. He had no de-
sire to do anything," says his
mother, Mrs. O. E. Tipps.
BUT then last month while
recuperating from the gall blad-
der surgery, Tipps brushed
away a nurses' efforts to give
him some medication and he
snapped out of his eight-year
daze.

"Mother, I only want to talk,"
he said.
Tipps thought he had been
asleep two weeks. He doesn't re-
member when he used to sit in
a chair, staring, or his par-
ents' efforts in the past five
years to exercise him on a row-
ing - bicycle machine to main-
tain muscle tone.
"THERE'S no medical expla-
nation," says Randal, who adds
that the gall bladder operation
had nothing to do with Tipps
waking up.
Randal said he gets at least
one inquiry a day from people
who have friends or relatives in
a condition similar to the one

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Tipps was in, but he said he
tells them there, is nothing he
can do.
"I wish I had a reason for
the change . . . but we don't,"
he said.
"I CAN hardly believe Gene
is back. I still can't find the
words to express the way I feel
about the change," his mother
said.
When he awoke, Tipps' only
thought was to notify Cisco Jun-
ior College of his whereabouts
so he could graduate as he had
planned in May 1967. The for-
mer dean's list student saw his
graduation certificate from
Cisco Junior College recently.
Now he wants to complete his
business administration educa-
tion at West Texas State Uni-
versity. He plans to enter this
fall. However, his education
plans must wait a while be-
cause he has little muscular
control of his left eye, which a
Wichita Falls doctor will ex-
amine.
"I want to go ahead with my
education in business adminis-
tration. I'm going to have to
get a job," says Tipps. "I think
I'm ready to take on the re-
sponsibilities my parents have
had these last eight years.
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