I'm impressed with his family...
They stuck by him through all of those years and talked to him. According to his doctors, he understood even though he was in a coma. His wife deserves some cudos, too. She must've been very young when the accident happened (he was 19 or 20) and had to raise their daughter on her own, yet she apparently stayed married to him. "In sickness and in health" must've meant something to her.