A nineteen-year-old British man is gradually recovering after being in a coma for more than ten months. He currently has no knowledge of the pandemic and its consequences.
Nineteen-year-old Briton Joseph Flavill, a brain injury victim, had been in a coma since March 1, 2020 at Leicester Hospital, after being hit by a car in Burton upon Trent, central England. His accident therefore occurred about three weeks before the first British confinement linked to the Covid-19 pandemic was put in place.
The young man, who woke up three weeks ago, has been gradually regaining consciousness over the past few days at Adderley Green care center in Stoke-on-Trent to continue his recovery… without know anything about the Covid-19 pandemic, according to The Guardian. And yet, despite himself, he contracted the virus twice during his sleep .
According to his family, Joseph can once again move his limbs when asked and is said to be able to interact with smiles or blinks. The rest will have to wait.
"When he's conscious and awake in his room, he mustn't know why he's there “, regrets his aunt. “We talked to him about it on the phone and we try to make it clear to him that we would really like to be with him to hold his hand, but that is just not possible. I just don't know where to start “, she continues.
“A year ago, if I had been told a quarter of what was going to happen throughout this year, I don't think I would would have believed it. I have no idea how Joseph will be able to realize what we have all been through ". But for now, "we're trying not to complicate our lives “, she continues.
"So far, we haven't really had time to get into the details of the pandemic... It just seems unreal, right? When we can meet face to face again, then it will be an opportunity to explain to him what happened “.
Before his coma, Joseph was an athletic teenager. He was also to be rewarded with the Duke of Edinburgh's International Prize, a youth incentive program which was founded in 1956 by the Duke of Edinburgh in May following his accident. Thanks to an online donation campaign, Joseph's Journey, the family has collected more than 30,000 books (more than 34,000 euros) to support the adolescent in their long-term recovery.
