"When his mother spoke to him, his heart rate went up. It's a clear response to his mother's voice," Dr. S. Eugene Finch, head of the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit, said Thursday.
Moscow Boys Choir member Yevgeny Morazov, 11, has been in a coma since last Thursday, when he was struck by a car while trying to cross a busy highway. The choir had been staying at a local motel, and was preparing to return to Moscow the following day after a five-week American tour.
An anonymous American benefactor paid for Yevgeny's mother, Svetlana Morazov, 36, and his 9-year-old sister, Alexandra, to come to the United States from their home in Moscow. After a brief news conference Thursday at John F. Kennedy International Airport, they went to Yevgeny's bedside.
Doctors say Yevgeny is in a "light coma," but until his mother showed up, he had shown only slight responses to outside voices.
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