Family credits Taylor Swift song with waking mother from a week-long coma

A Missouri woman who spent nearly a week in a coma says she’s grateful to her family for singing her a Taylor Swift song that she says helped wake her up.

Angela Fisher went to the hospital at the end of January for a colon dissection. She had a massive bleed, so she was rushed into emergency surgery. But after she got out of surgery, she didn’t wake up.

“Everybody tells me that I almost died,” Angela Fisher said.

For nearly seven days, Angela Fisher was in a coma. Doctors even told her family to say their goodbyes – until an intensive care unit nurse made a suggestion.

“Make some noises. Do something,” said Brenda Varner, Angela Fisher’s sister, recalling the nurse’s advice.

The noise Varner and Angela’s daughter, Amanda Fisher, decided to make? One of Taylor Swift’s biggest hits. The family started belting “Shake It Off” over and over, louder and louder, next to Angela Fisher’s hospital bed.

“She had a tear,” Varner said. “It was like she was just kind of struggling barely, but we could tell that it seemed like she was hearing us.”

After the tear came a blink. These were the first signs that Angela Fisher had awoken from her coma.

“We were just thrilled. We were like, ‘Oh my gosh, she blinked,’” Amanda Fisher said.

Now on the road to recovery, Angela Fisher says she’s grateful to her family, God and the resourceful ICU nurse that inspired her sister and daughter.

“When the doctors gave up on me and told my family to tell me goodbye, she worked and worked and worked. Here I am because of her,” she said. “Miracles do happen, and it’s wonderful to be here.”

Angela Fisher says she now has a song that will be stuck in her head forever.

“Well, ‘Shake It Off’ is really working well for me,” she said with a laugh.

Angela Fisher has been out of the hospital for about two weeks. She has six more weeks of recovery ahead.