Never, ever underestimate the power of a mother's love for her child. Some members of the medical profession did, it would appear, and they might eat their words if they knew how far now 15-year-old Amanda Brown has come in the span of a year.

Last October, Amanda's mother Sandra Brown was fighting for her daughter's life after a May 2007 bicycle accident put her in a coma that led to brain surgery that had an unfortunate side effect, a stroke. Amanda was left in a vegetative state and the major health insurance provider that covered the Brown family would not approve treatment for the teen.

Submitted photo (ENLARGE)

In May 2007 Amanda Brown was involved in a bicycle accident which put her in a coma and led to brain surgery that had an unfortunate side effect, a stroke. Amanda was left in a vegetative state and the major health insurance provider that covered the Brown family would not approve treatment for the teen.

"Her neurologist from day one said if I did not want my daughter to be a vegetable and want her back, to get her into intense rehabilitation and fight for her," Sandra Brown said last October.

So that 's what the woman did, and while Sandra is still fighting for her daughter, that fight is not as uphill as it seemed back then. Back then, without the help of health insurance, the Camden County community came to the rescue at a fundraiser, raising money that has, Sandra says, brought Amanda to the point where there is a great deal of hope and a whole lot of improvement.

"She is improving," says Sandra. "She is laughing and smiling and she knows her surroundings."

Her surroundings may be the biggest boon the family has seen in recent months. Doctors, Sandra explains, believe that Amanda is lsuffering as a result of the post-surgery stroke she had, and she can be rehabilitated. Those doctors are members of a team at the Florida Institute of Neurological Rehabilitation, that not only specializes in cases such as Amanda's, but have taken the reigns from her mother long enough to convince the family's insurance provider to cover the medical treatment.

But the cost of Sandra Brown staying near Amanda, and some of the other bills overflowing from months past, are proving difficult for the family, so friends have once again banded together to hold a fundraiser Saturday at the Camden High School, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sandra Brown says she wants people to know that never giving up on her daughter, and her friends never giving up on her, has made all the difference.

There are four facilities in the U.S., Sandra Brown says, that specialize in treating coma-related incidents such as Amanda's. A doctor in a Virginia facility told the family to give up and accept Amanda's fate, while the insurance provider refused to help the family into a Wisconsin and New York facility.

So it was the Florida center that made the difference.

The insurance provider once again denied medical coverage but this time,

instead of the Brown family appealing, the facility appealed and won on the first try. They convinced the provider that Amanda could be rehabilitated.

"I'm never going to give up and this facility is never going to give up," says Sandra Brown. "They said once they got her here they are going to work until she is a functioning teenager."

And the signs are all there. First, doctors had once told the Browns that Amanda would be paralyzed from the waist down, but she just completed a round on a stationary bike, pedaling her legs independent of any therapists, Sandra says.

Second, her mind is present and jokes are one way Sandra knows this. Tell a joke in front of Amanda and she laughs.

Right now Sandra's husband and their son are still living in Camden while she stays in lodging provided by the Florida rehabilitation center. The family, she says, is split apart but for now it's worth it to see her daughter get her the help she needs.

Sandra says she will never give up on her daughter, ever. She says a mother knows her child and she knows that one day Amanda will be healed.

"I know my daughter," she says. "It's the same thing I am dealing with right now. Doctors come in and see Amanda for 30 minutes. You have to spend time with her to see how much she has improved."

It's the same thing Sandra Brown said about Amanda last October. And if she had passively dismissed her daughter's health and listened to the doctors who would write Amanda off, the teen girl would still be in a complete vegetative state, unable to move, unable to laugh.

Not on her mother's watch, though.