Jon Moulton wanted a cigarette in the worst way.

The long-time bartender at Doc's Seafood Shack in Orange Beach had been smoking since his teen-age years and it had been awhile since he'd had one.

A few days, actually.

But the people around him weren't exactly ready to give him one. Moulton, 28, had only emerged from a 24-hour coma just a few minutes earlier and was in the middle of a three-day stay in the intensive care unit in Sacred Heart hospital in Pensacola.

The day before his eyes fluttered back open, doctors and family were considering pulling the plug on the life support system keeping him alive.

"One minute they were talking about pulling the plug on him, and that's all we heard," said Terry Lash, a manager at Doc's. "The next day we called Paige and she said 'he's talking, he's fine. He just woke up this morning.'

"When i talked to him, he was like, 'Look man, I need somebody to give me a cigarette,'" Lash recalled. "Then he said 'I'll be at work Wednesday.' I said 'all right man. But first, let's clear that with the doctor.'"

On June 16, while playing pool in his favorite after-work hangout on, After Hours in Gulf Shores, Moulton collapsed.

He doesn't even remember being in the hospital.

"All I know is I was shooting pool, watching the jukebox, next thing I know I'm back at the house," Moulton said. "That's it. I guess I was on life support."

He's heard the stories about what was happening with him from girlfriend Paige Carter.

"If i could tell you more, I would," Moulton said. "Stuff they tell me, it kinda goes in one ear and out the other. I just can't grip it. It's like it's not really sticking. My memory's been pretty bad, I think, from the side effects."

He's been told a heart murmur might have been the cause.

"They said it may have been a heart murmur, I guess," he said. "It jumped out of rhythm and what not. They give me blood pressure medicine, check my heart rate and it's been fine. I've been doing good. Back to normal pretty much."

The crew is pretty much back to normal too after a few sad days waiting to hear Moulton's fate. Recently, managers Lash and David Schwartz were poking fun at Moulton and he was giving it back. Just like normal.

"It's pretty simple: I fell out, I was in a coma for about 24 hours," Schwartz said.

Lash has his own version of events.

"I think he was in the coma listening to 'em arguing over who was gonna pull the plug and he decided he better wake up," Lash said with a laugh.

"Y'all worked me to death," Moulton told the pair.

Perhaps the coworker most concerned was fellow bartender Donnie Watkins. The two have quite a good time picking on each other.

"'Man, I miss him man. I miss him,'" Lash said, imitating Watkins. "'I hate the little (explitive), but I miss him.'"

Watkins has to admit that he and the rest of the Doc's crew were down in the dumps when it looked like Moulton wasn't going to pull through.

"We give each other a hard time all the time, but when it comes down to it, he's a good friend and he's a good guy," Watkins said. "One of my favorite things to do is give him a hard time.

"Everybody was really upset when we thought we were gonna lose him, but now that he's back, I hate him as much as ever," Watkins said with a chuckle.