AMAZING RECOVERY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23916, 18 September 1939, Page 4

AMAZING RECOVERY

BOY UNCONSCIOUS FOR 55 DAYS FAMILY’S LONG VIGIL (From Our Own Correspondent; SYDNEY, Sept. 4. After having been unconscious for 55 days, John Bryan Boyd, 15 years of age, regained consciousness in the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital here. Doctors and nurses who have attended him describe his recovery as “ wonderful.” Few persons have remained unconscious for more than 30 days and lived. Doctors say it is still doubtful whether the boy knows what he is doing and he still has to be fed, but he is expected to recover rapidly. The boy was knocked unconscious when he fell from a tree at his home at Peak Hill, a town in the western district of New South Wales, on July 7. Two days later he was flown 200 miles to Sydney and admitted immediately to hospital. Except for a few minutes a fortnight ago, when he signalled to his mother by opening and closing his eyes, he had remained in a deep coma. Without a break since the boy was admitted, his mother and sister maintained a vigil by his bedside. His mother was there when he opened his eyes and called. “ Mum.”