Song About Angels Stirs Coma Victim

For 12 days, 9-year-old Heather Harcum lay in a coma. Then her mother played Heather’s favorite song, “Angels Among Us,” by the country group Alabama. And Heather came out of it. “When it came on, she started crying, which we always did when we heard that song,” Penny Harcum, 30, said in an interview. Penny Harcum was driving home from Christmas shopping Nov. 30 when she got into an accident with two other cars. She and her 6-year-old daughter, Holly, were uninjured, but the crash caused some bruising or swelling and hemorrhaging on Heather’s brain, leaving the girl in a coma. Because it’s believed that people in a coma can hear things around them, doctors suggested the family read books to her and play music that she liked. Heather’s doctors said she had been making slow and steady gains, but a major step had been accomplished when Penny Harcum played the song.