An excited utterance, in the law of evidence, is a statement made by a person in response to a startling or shocking event or condition.
[1] The statement must be spontaneously made by the person (the declarant) while still under the stress of excitement from the event or condition.
The statement could be a description or explanation (as required for present sense impression), or an opinion or inference.
The basis for this hearsay exception is the belief that a statement made under the stress is likely to be trustworthy and unlikely to be a premeditated falsehood.
A similar case involved a woman who had been in a coma for thirty days following a car crash.
At trial, her statement was admitted even though a month had passed because the startling event was perceived to be the telling of the news, as opposed to the crash itself.