Incest daughter being taken out of coma

AMSTETTEN , Austria, May 27 (UPI) -- Doctors have started withdrawing from a coma the daughter of the Austrian man accused of having a decades-long relationship with his daughter, her mother.

Doctors placed Kerstin Fritzl, 19, in a coma in April to help her recover from an illness. Since her condition improved, staff members at the Amstetten Regional Clinic began the wake-up phase, in which they began weaning her from coma-inducing drugs, The Daily Telegraph reported Monday.

"Kerstin is still in coma but her condition has been gradually improving and doctors have initiated the wake-up phase," hospital spokesman Klaus Schwertner said. "It is expected that it will take some weeks before she actually wakes up but it could also take longer than that."

The teen is one of the seven children Josef Fritzl fathered with his daughter Elisabeth, whom he kept imprisoned in a cellar beneath his Amstetten home for 24 years.

Three children lived with Fritzl and his wife in their home above the cellar while three others -- including the hospitalized girl -- lived with their mother underground. Another child died shortly after birth.

The situation became known when Fritzl took the 19-year-old to the hospital, where medical staff alerted authorities.