Austrian incest cellar girl wakes from coma

19-year old Kerstin Fritzl, one of the seven incest children Austrian Josef Fritzl fathered with his own daughter Elisabeth, has finally come out of a seven-week coma.

Kerstin was put into a medically-induced coma by the doctors at Amstetten general hospital after she suffered a multiple organ failure. She fell unconscious on 19 April forcing Fritzl to seek medical help heeding Elisabeth's plea.

Kerstin, who is the eldest of Fritzl's secret incest offspring, is now reunited with her mother and brothers, Stefan and Felix. All four were imprisoned by Fritzl in a small purpose-built, sound-proofed and windowless dungeon beneath their home. The dungeon was designed and built by Fritzl himself who is an engineer and property developer. Kerstin reportedly became very ill for lack of fresh air, light, exercise and proper food for her entire life.

Elisabeth, 43, was raped by Fritzl since she was 11, and at 18 was lured by him into the basement of their house where she was locked up and made into his personal sex slave for over 24 years, beginning 1984. Elisabeth was repeatedly raped and physically assaulted by Fritzl resulting to her becoming pregnant seven times during the course of events. Kerstin, was the first to be born inside the cellar in 1989. Six incest children followed; three of whom -- Lisa, 16, Monika, 14, and Alexander, 12 -- were brought by Fritzl out of the cellar when they were infants, to live a normal life with him and wife Rosemarie in the upstairs home. The three babies were "discovered" outside the entrance of their residence on different occasions. It was Fritzl's plan to make it appear to Rosemarie that Elisabeth had left the babies to their care.

One of Elisabeth's babies, Alexander's twin brother Michael, died due to breathing complication three days after he was born in 1996. "There is so little oxygen that that the victims would have had to spend nearly all their time lying or sitting down," an investigator stated.

In his 28 April confession following his arrest, Fritzl admitted to having thrown the baby's corpse in his heating furnace to "get rid of it".

Kerstin, together with Stefan, 18, and Felix, 5, remained to live with their mother in the damp, moldy cellar, never seeing the light of day until police revealed the case on 26 April.

Elisabeth gave birth to all her seven children inside the dimly-lit chamber, aided only by medical books Fritzl provided her. Her mother, Rosemarie, 68, Fritzl's legal wife with whom he also has seven offspring, claims she was not aware of Elisabeth's cellar predicaments as Fritzl made her believe that Elisabeth ran away from home to join a religious cult when she was 18.

Police investigations started after Kerstin was delivered to hospital on 19 April. Elisabeth hid a letter inside her daughter's pocket asking for help hoping somebody in the hospital would discover it. When the doctors found the note, they called the police.