Man wakes after order to end life support
Parents, sister won reversal of wife's decision
By Dennis Wagner
USA TODAY

PHOENIX — Eighteen days after his wife instructed doctors to disconnect food and water tubes, a Chandler, Ariz., man is sitting up in his hospice bed, giving the thumbs-up sign and communicating with visitors.

Jesse Ramirez Jr.'s awakening, which friends called "a miracle," occurred after his sister, parents and other relatives went to court and obtained an emergency order for feeding and hydration tubes to be reinserted, reversing a directive given by his wife, Rebecca Ramirez.

Judge Paul Katz announced the news Tuesday during a Maricopa County Superior Court hearing. Relatives had been in a three-week battle over the 36-year-old postal worker's fate, and who should control it.

Ramirez suffered brain injuries in a May 30 automobile accident. He regained consciousness on Sunday. the rest