Family promise gave life to man in 31-year coma

As his 7-year-old son Mikey lay in a hospital bed on life support, the victim of a drunk driver who had smashed into his family's car, Paul Cortez took the boy's hand and made a solemn promise to God: If his son survived, no matter in what condition, he and his family would always be there for him.

Family

It was a promise the family would keep for 31 years, during a time in which Mikey would grow from little boy to teenager and, finally, into strapping, 150-pound adult.
Although he would never emerge from the persistent vegetative state his father had found him in that night, Mikey's family was not only there for him but also gave him a full life. A life, as it turned out, not all that different from anybody else's, with cross-country family vacations and visits to Disneyland.

Mikey