Phone Company Helps Comatose Man, Family

Thu., Dec. 28, 1995

By Kim Barker kimb@spokesman.com

Thanks to the phone company, it’s now much easier to reach out and touch Jeff Feagan.

Feagan, 35, is lying in a coma in the Southcrest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Spokane after being attacked more than two months ago.

His family is looking for volunteers to read to him, touch him and give him human contact. Doctors say that kind of stimulation is important to help keep his senses alive.

US West has donated a phone line, at 467-7203, for interested people to call and leave a message.

“I’ll call these people right back,” said Virginia Summers, Feagan’s mother. “I’m going to get these people lined up and a schedule going.”

Enough people volunteered on Christmas so that the family could eat dinner together, from 3:30 to 7 p.m.

Police are still searching for the four men who attacked Feagan and his younger brother after a traffic altercation Oct. 14. Feagan was hit on the back of the head in the parking lot of Tidyman’s Warehouse Foods, 6401 N. Cedar.

The attackers fled in a blue Toyota pickup with an extended cab. A $2,500 award remains unclaimed. Anyone with information on the beating is asked to call Secret Witness at 327-5111.

, DataTimes

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