Maggie Lowrie kisses her son Greg Lowrie as he recovers at Highland http://t.co/0QfRF1PsY6 #oakland @daviddebolt pic.twitter.com/BRedthLFni
— Jose Carlos Fajardo (@jcfphotog) March 21, 2015
Greg Lowrie, the 25-year-old who was knocked 30 feet off his bicycle in a West Oakland collision in mid-January after which he and the driver of the vehicle that hit him were both robbed has just spoken his first words after being in a coma for over six weeks. As the Oakland Tribune reports, doctors at Highland Hospital are pretty astounded at his recovery, given that he arrived at the hospital on January 13 with one of the lowest consciousness scores you can have on the Glasgow Coma Scale, and the fact that Lowrie suffers from a heart defect that has further complicated the treatment of his other injuries, which include a broken pelvis and cervical spine fracture.
But Lowrie, who had been living in an RV with his mother in West Oakland at the time of the accident, opened his eyes three weeks ago, and then reportedly spoke his first words on Thursday, saying, "Hi Mom," when she walked in the room, and he was able to give his name and age. Also, he spoke his first full sentence, which was, "Show me how to get out of here."
Touchingly, his mother, 62-year-old Maggie Lowrie, said that until her son could speak again, and call her mom, "I wasn't sure he knew who I was."
The Lowries have a pretty wrenching hard-luck story that includes the loss of their Berkeley home in 2013, and Greg's multiple surgeries for his heart defect, and subsequent addiction to heroin. Maggie Lowrie had been a lawyer before being disbarred in May 2013, for reasons that aren't entirely clear but include her failure to show up to clients' hearings. Her subsequent depression led to the loss of the home, and over a year living in the RV behind a gate in the Lower Bottoms, near the old Central Station and the Oakland Army Base in West Oakland.
As CBS 5 reports, Greg Lowrie is scheduled to be moved to a rehabilitation facility later this month.