Arkansas City ? A woman thought to have Lou Gehrig’s disease has resumed talking after a silence of nearly three years – the second such surprise recovery at a south-central Kansas facility.

Nurse Georgi Hollins was tending to De Glaze on Halloween when her longtime patient surprised her.

She said, ‘Georgi, I want to thank you for that bath you gave me last week; it was one of the best baths I’ve had,”‘ said Hollins, director of nursing at the Medicalodge North Post-Acute Care Center.

“It brought tears to my eyes,” she said. “It was such a long sentence.”

The facility’s first surprise came in 2005 when patient Tracy Gaskill spoke her first words in nearly three years. She had suffered critical internal and head injuries in a September 2002 traffic accident.

“It’s just something in the water,” said Administrator Erik Hatten. “It’s been pretty amazing.

Hollins said Glaze’s recovery is “quite remarkable. We dance around miracles.”

In a visit with family members Monday, Glaze called the recovery “the miracle of my life.”

Every Tuesday, church ladies from her church, First Assembly of God, prayed for her, Glaze said.

“The church ladies said they’ll have to rename this place the Miracle Lodge,” said Glaze, who served as a nurse for more than 30 years before the disease debilitated her.

Members of Glaze’s family, including her husband, Joe, and her daughter, Doreen, also were present Oct. 31 when she began to talk. She spoke her first words to her husband, Joe Glaze, team leader for respiratory therapy at South Central Kansas Regional Medical Center.

“She said ‘thank you,”‘ he said. “It just happened suddenly, and then, wham, she took off (talking). Then she started complaining.”

Joe Glaze said his wife’s doctor told him he had never seen a patient with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, lose their voice and regain it.

“Lou Gehrig’s disease is a continually deteriorating disease that continues until a person dies,” said Dr. David Schmeidler, De’s physician. “It’s a neurological disease and they gradually go down, lose control of their muscles and waste away.”

However, Schmeidler noted that Glaze’s diagnosis of Lou Gehrig’s disease was a working diagnosis from the neurologist.